Harry Potter and the Weirdos from Japan
by MasterQwertster
Summary: Dumbledore decides to call in some help using an old debt. Shinji and Urahara decide to take Uryu and Ichigo along for the ride. Hogwarts year five, after Thousand-year Blood War.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note**

All right, new story! This is the one my nice friend _AoNoBleachShoujo _told me I should expand on, so here it is. Enjoy!

* * *

"Are you gonna tell us why you dragged our asses to England yet, Geta-boshi, or do I hafta beat it out of you?" an irritated Ichigo Kurosaki asks.

"As much as I hate to agree with Kurosaki, his question does have merit. Why have you brought us to England?" Uryu asks as he pushes up his glasses.

"You didn't ask when I brought you two along." Urahara states, ignoring the question.

"You woke us up in the middle of the night and dragged us off while we were still half asleep!" Ichigo explodes.

"I don't even think I packed my own bag." Uryu mutters.

"Oh, look! It's Hirako-san!" Urahara cries out, pointing to where Shinji is leaning against a wall under a sign pointing to the baggage claim. His distraction works as the two younger men turn to see that the captain of squad 5 is indeed there.

"Yo!" Shinji waves as they approach, pushing off the wall and closing the distance. "I'm surprised you actually got them to come along, Kisuke. What'd ya bribe 'em with?" he asks as his signature grin spreads a little farther across his face.

"He didn't bribe us with jack shit! He dragged our asses out of bed and onto a plane in the middle of the night! We were barely even conscious!" Ichigo rants. Shinji just smiles, chuckling a bit at the idea.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Urahara drugged us just to make us come." Uryu states.

"I got your fathers' permission to take you with us on this trip, so there's no need to be worried."

"Our fathers didn't do anything to stop us from going to fight in a war. Twice." Uryu points out.

"So, did ya drug 'em?" Shinji asks. He was rather curious and wondered if he could get some to use on Hiyori the next time he sees her.

"Actually, I did drug those two so they'd come along quietly. It was a tricky little thing to make. I couldn't have it setting off any airport security, so I had to develop it to sedate them using their souls instead of their physical bodies, which is rather tricky when you take into account how resistant powerful souls like theirs are to damage and effects. The drug works by suppressing a person's reiatsu to such a low point that the body figures it needs to rest to regain that energy. I had to be careful that I didn't push it too low to cause a near death state or leave it too high, causing them to just be very hungry and a little sleepy. Then, of course, there was getting the proper dosage for Kurosaki-san. I almost didn't get enough in his first dose, he has so much reiatsu." Urahara merrily explains. The difficulty of this feat of science had left him feeling quite proud of himself. Mayuri certainly couldn't have made such a fine drug in only two days.

"What the hell, Geta-boshi? Seriously. What. The. Hell." Ichigo asks while Uryu drags his hand down his face.

"I would shoot you right now, but then I'd probably get arrested." Uryu states with a huff. _Stupid police and their policies against causing bodily harm to mad scientists who drug people and drag them halfway around the world._

Shinji just chuckles at the boys' annoyance with Urahara as they pull their suitcases off the conveyor belt. Once all the bags are retrieved, they head outside into the settling twilight and hail a cab. They piled in and Urahara gave the man the address.

"So are you two going to finally tell us why we're in London, England?" Uryu impatiently asks, still speaking Japanese so that the cab driver can't understand the conversation.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get yer panties in a wad, your four-eyed majesty." Shinji replies with a small mock bow, causing Uryu to fume at the mockery of his position. "We brought ya here 'cause Kisuke an' me owe a British guy a small debt from about thirty years ago and he decided ta finally call it in. Said somethin' 'bout being bodyguards or something like that for some kid he's watchin' over."

"So you dragged us halfway around the damn _world _to help you babysit?" Ichigo asks in a disbelieving tone.

"Well, to be perfectly fair, Potter-san is 15, so we figured since you two are closer to his age, he'd be less suspicious of hanging around you two." Urahara chimes in.

"So you intend to make us bodyguards to someone who apparently doesn't want one?" Uryu asks.

"Yep. Surprised ya figured out he didn' want 'em. Guess you're as smart as those glasses make ya look." Shinji says, smiling as he notices the twitch in Uryu's eye at the glasses comment. Ichigo has to struggle a bit to not let any laughs out at Shinji's joke.

"Why does this Potter boy even need bodyguards? And why can't they supply them themselves?" Uryu continues to question.

"Ah, that would be because they're not a very combative society compared to us and are currently facing a 'secret' " Urahara makes actual air quotations as he says secret, "resurgence of a 'dark lord' that wants to kill him. Dumbledore-san, who we owe a debt to, has asked for our assistance since we are combat specialists in protecting Potter-san."

"I suppose we can't really make ya help us, but it seemed like somethin' the two of ya would be willin' ta do an' we needed some younger lookin' faces ta help us." Shinji honestly states. "Guess I coulda used Momo-chan, but then my squad wouldn' have anyone to run it." He adds as an afterthought.

Ichigo sighs. "Fine, I'll help. It just would have been nice to be _informed_ of what the hell we were doing instead of being freaking _kidnapped_."

Uryu pushes his glasses up. "I'll also help, but ask first next time. Otherwise, I'll turn you two into pincushions." he threatens.

The rest of the cab ride is silent as the occupants are left to their own thoughts. They watch the city flash by as the cab comes into a rundown area where the houses were unwelcoming.

" 'Ere we are, Grimmauld Place." the cab driver announces. Shinji, Ichigo, and Uryu get out and start pulling their bags out of the back while Urahara pays the driver. Once they are clear of the cab, he speeds off.

"Alrighty then, off we go!" Urahara says in a voice that both Ichigo and Uryu find much too cheerful for their current location. They pick up their bags and follow him anyways. They walk down the street past rundown homes with broken windows. Loud music can be heard thumping from one of the houses. The small group comes to a stop at number 11. After they've just stood there for a minute, Ichigo loses his patience.

"What the hell are we standing around here for, Geta-boshi?"

"We were instructed to come to this location and that one of Dumbledore-san's people would take us to their base of operations from here. Ooh, maybe that's them now!" Urahara bounces a little bit as he points out two men walking toward their location. One was older with a grizzled mane of gray hair and heavily mismatched eyes, one beady and dark, the other large and electric blue. He walked with a slight limp. The other man was younger with black, shoulder length hair and a hooked nose. His black cloak made him seem almost bat-like and both Ichigo and Uryu shuddered a bit as memories of the last "bat-like" person they had met ran through their heads. The two men come up to the group of four and the older man's blue eye whizzes around in its socket, looking them over. They can now see that the older man is covered in scars and a chunk of his nose is missing.

"I suppose you four are the group from Japan?" the older of the two asks in a gruff voice, speaking English.

"Indeed, we are." Urahara jovially replies. "You must be Dumbledore-san's men. I'm Kisuke Urahara and these are Shinji Hirako, Uryu Ishida, and Ichigo Kurosaki." he introduces, pointing to each of the others in turn.

"Alastor Moody and this is Severus Snape." Moody introduces them. "Snape will be checking you lot to make sure you're not a bunch of Death Eaters. Wouldn't do to lead a small pack of them to our headquarters."

"And how will he do that? We could have forcibly gotten the required information to pass this test if we were fakes." Uryu calmly points out.

"You may be able to lie with words and appearances, but there are very few who know how to lie within the confines of their own mind." Snape dryly points out.

"[Would that sort of thing be safe for him? Me and Shinji have got hollows in our minds.]" Ichigo asks Urahara.

"What'd he say?" Moody barks out.

"Ah, Kurosaki-san was just expressing his concerns over the safety of your friend entering our minds. We are somewhat past human because of the skills we've acquired and wouldn't want him hurting himself by coming across data he can't readily comprehend." Urahara explains.

"[More like eaten.]" Shinji comments, snickering at his own joke. Moody gives him a hard stare and Uryu hits him over the back of the head.

"[You've lived for over a century, so quit acting like a child.]" Uryu scolds Shinji, who only gives him an unrepentant grin.

"If you don't mind," Moody says meaningfully, "we should get started with the tests. Shouldn't spend too long standing around out here." They all nod their heads and line up, Uryu in the front, then Urahara, Shinji, and lastly Ichigo. Snape walks forward to stand before Uryu, takes a deep breath, and dives into the Quincy's mind.

* * *

When Snape opens his eyes, he does not find a memory playing around him as he expected. Instead he finds himself in a large library filled with bookshelves that reach for the ceiling laden with scrolls and books.

"I'd always wondered what my inner world would look like." Snape spins around to find the mind's owner calmly walking through the shelves, browsing their contents. "I suppose a library makes sense considering that as Yhwach's heir I have access to all the memories and knowledge of those who have passed and those who would currently allow me access." He tugs a book off one of the shelves and leafs through it before returning it to its spot.

Snape carefully eyes the young man before him, trying to make sense of his words. He made it sound like it was common for a mindscape that wasn't memories or just plain thoughts to exist. More than that, his mind was supposedly connected to others, including the deceased.

"What are you?" Snape asks, his tone defensive with a slight hint of fear in it.

Uryu looks up from the tome he was skimming. "I'm Ishida Uryu, leader of the Quincy people, heir of Yhwach, and his downfall." he says in a proud tone, looking almost regal. "I'm also a distant cousin of Kurosaki." He offhandedly adds on, going back to skimming the contents of the tome in his hand.

Snape still can't make much sense of what Uryu has told him, so he cautiously reaches out and removes one of the scrolls from the shelf and opens it. He immediately snaps it back shut as the image of some _monster_ about to wrap its large jaws around his body flashes over him. Panting he places the scroll back into its stack.

Snape withdraws his consciousness from Uryu's mind.

* * *

They blink at each other before Snape steps back. "He's not a Death Eater." He calmly declares, hiding his inner turmoil over the strangeness of the boy's mind. _I'm not sure what exactly he is. _Snape then moves down the line to Urahara and dives into the inventor's mind.

* * *

Once more, Snape is disoriented by the lack of memory playing before him. This time he finds himself in what appears to be a laboratory, if the mass of beakers, burners, and jars on the tables are anything to go by. He also spots several boxes scattered about the room that contain an ungodly number of folding fans and duplicates of the striped bucket hat the man had been wearing.

"Well. Well. What do we have here?" a smooth feminine voice purrs from behind Snape. He whirls around to see a regal looking woman dressed in layers of a red kimono held in place by a golden sash and holding one of the fans before her lower face walking towards him, wooden geta clacking on the tile floors of the lab. Her ruby red hair is pinned up with clinking golden ornaments and her purple eyes gleam with intelligence far beyond that of most men. "I must admit, this is the first time someone else has reached this lab and little Kisuke's been trying for _decades_ to figure out how to semi-physically infiltrate another's mind. How _did_ you do it, little wizard?"

Snape becomes nervous as the woman stalking towards him takes on a predatory air, looking upon him as if he is some interesting specimen laid out before her. He moves back and starts when his back hits one of the tables, knocking a few beakers to the floor.

"Why don't we find out if the injuries you sustain here are transferred to your body outside? I know it works for shinigami when they spar with zanpakuto, but will it work on invaders, I wonder?" she croons, a frightening smile on her lips.

Snape is panicking now, unsure how to stop the woman's advances when he is unarmed. His fear increases when she draws a blade out of nowhere, leveling it at him. He scrabbles at the contents on the table behind him, trying to grab something to throw at the mad woman before him in hopes of deterring her. She brings the blade up and swings so fast Snape catches little more than a red blur. He clenches his eyes shut, knowing that he cannot defend against her and waits for the pain of the blow.

It never comes.

He slowly opens his eyes and finds the blade tip resting lightly against his shoulder, a pale hand gripping the wrist of his attacker.

"Maa~ That was a close one!" Urahara cheerily says. "A moment later and your shoulder would have been cut open.

"Must you run my experiment, Kisuke? I never ruin _your_ experiments." the woman pouts, withdrawing her arm and the blade.

"Now, now, Benihime-chan. We're here to convince this man we're not his enemies. Cutting people open with swords doesn't help, now does it?" he chides his zanpakuto spirit.

"You never let me have any fun." she sniffs, turning away from her partner and folding her arms across her chest. "You barely use me anymore. The most you've done has been within the past four years! In over a century! You've only gone bankai three times since you've learned it!" she tirades, stomping her feet and acting like a brat in Snape's opinion. "Don't you care about me, Kisuke?" she sobs, slumping to her knees and letting her legs splay beneath her.

"Of course, Benihime-chan!" Urahara quickly reassures her, bending down to place his hands on her shoulders. "Of course I care. But we were in hiding for a long time, releasing you could have got us caught and killed. And you know bankai is a last resort move, so doesn't that mean we're strong if we so rarely need to use it?" his placations slowly lessen the sobs from Benihime until it's just small sniffles. "Now why don't you go play with the soda and Mentos. That's fun, right?" she nods as she picks herself up. Benihime straightens her robes, dusting them off, and regaining her regal air before stalking off through the lab, the clacking of her geta slowly fading.

"She's always such a handful." Urahara wistfully sighs, a smile on his face as he watches her retreating form. "Sorry for the mess, Snape-san. It's usually just me and Benihime-chan in here." he says as he pulls a pair of stools out from under a table, taking a seat in one and gesturing Snape to the other. He carefully takes the seat, perching on the edge of it, ready to run if the mind's owner turns out just as crazy as the second personality he just met. "I'd offer you something to drink, but I'm afraid nothing in here is likely edible. Or if it is, it probably isn't good for you." he says with a shrug.

"I think I'll be leaving now." Snape says, feeling rather eager to get out of the laboratory and away from its two crazy occupants. Urahara just smiles and waves good-bye.

* * *

Snape blinks and shakes his head a bit upon returning to the real world. Urahara gives him an unrepentant grin. "He's not a Death Eater either." _Though he seems quite mad. _He steps back and moves down the line, feeling some trepidation about venturing into the minds of the two remaining men. This feeling is not helped by the smug looking grin plastered across Shinji's face.

Taking a steadying breath and praying that there's nothing like Benihime in the blonde's mind, he dives in.

* * *

This time, Snape is barely fazed by the lack of memory playing before him. Shinji's mind appears to be an old stone city filled with maze-like streets. Over the roof tops, he can see what looks like some sort of temple in what appears to be the center of the city. Looking around and finding no one in sight, Snape decides to head for the temple as there's no other land markers available.

It feels like a long process, winding through the streets, cutting through switch backs, and generally trying to navigate the place. Snape finally reaches the temple to find Shinji waiting on the steps. With his closer view, Snape now notices some oddities about the temple. It has no windows or openings, the walls are scored with deep scratches, making Snape wonder at what could leave such marks, and the most disturbing thing to Snape is the doorway. In the center of the double doors is what appears to be a mask made of bone that brings to mind an Egyptian pharaoh. Snape can't shake the feeling that the blank eye holes in the mask are watching him, waiting for him to come close enough to attack.

Shinji notices how Snape stares at the mask in the doorway. " 'S not a nice fellow. That's why I got 'im sealed up nice 'n tight here." Shinji says as he descends the stairs to stand beside Snape. "Was a helluva fight ta make him submit so I could seal 'im. Ya can still see the some o' the damage we did in that tussle." He points out the gouges in the rock of the temple.

"What is it?" Snape asks, his voice quiet as if he fears speaking too loud will bring the monster upon them. Snape has always considered himself a brave man, one has to be brave to face down the Dark Lord and lie to his face, but whatever it is that Shinji has sealed in this temple is much more terrifying on a more basic level than Tom Riddle could ever be. Whatever is in there can cause a fear that sits in his bones, screaming to put as much distance as possible between them.

"That's my inner hollow." Shinji quietly replies. "They're pretty nasty things. Try and take you over from the inside, get you to kill anything around you. Nothing but instincts and violence." Snape shivers at the description, barely noting the lack of accent as Shinji speaks.

"We're fighters. That's what your boss asked for. We are violent people when provoked. This is just most of the violence I've got compressed into one place." Shinji casually states, placing his hand on Snape's shoulder. "But don't worry, I've got this bastard under control." He grins as he gives Snape's shoulder a squeeze before letting go and wandering off into the maze of streets, whistling a light tune.

* * *

Snape shudders a bit as he comes back to his senses, adjusting to the warm late summer air as opposed to the chill of malice around the temple in Shinji's mindscape. "Not a Death Eater." _But still a monster, or at least a monster's master._

Snape turns to look at the last of the foreign group. He wears a scowl under his vibrantly orange hair and gives off a rather punkish air with the way he holds himself. _Last one._ Snape mentally braces himself and dives into Ichigo's mind.

* * *

Snape had been expecting another one of those "inner worlds" as Ishida had called it, but this one was completely disorienting. He could see a city of skyscrapers raised up around him, all colored blue and filled with glass windows. There wasn't anything too bad about that, Shinji's had been a city too, if of a very different fashion. No what was disorienting about this world was that everything was _sideways._ He stood on the _side_ of one of the great skyscrapers, with the ground far to his left and the open sky to his right. A mild warm breeze swirled around him. Snape turned to look behind him and stopped.

At his throat rested the tip of a large, obsidian blade shaped rather similarly to a kitchen knife with a hole along the back side of it. The blade was really enough reason to stop, but what made a cold sweat break out over him was the blade's wielder.

Holding the blade was a white duplicate of Kurosaki. His hair was white spikes. His skin was a solid white, no color visible from the veins underneath. Even his clothes were white, though they did have some black trimming. The abuse of the color white Snape could handle, it was the doppelganger's eyes that put fear in him. Its eyes were gold in a sea of black. Cunning and lit with an animalistic ruthlessness that made Snape want to hide away in a hole and hope he wasn't found.

A cruel smile spread across the _thing's_ face. "Well what'd ya know? Aibou was right. Ya can get inta inner worlds." it muses, bringing the blade a little closer to his throat causing Snape to take a step back. The creature's voice is distorted, as though it's speaking underwater, and Snape notices that its tongue is blue. It laughs in deranged amusement at Snape's fear and reaction.

"That is enough." a deep baritone commands. "There is no need to torture the man as he does his job." Snape peers over the shoulder of the creature before him to see a tall, gaunt faced middle-aged man with a mess of deep brown, almost black, hair with a stubble and a tan visor in a ragged black coat.

"I don't have ta listen to ya, ossan!" it shouts back, annoyance obvious in tis tone.

"And before you two start fighting, let's call this a draw." Ichigo calmly interjects, advancing towards the little group. "Zangetsu put your sword away. If he actually tries to cause trouble, then you can stab him."

"Tch. You ain't no fun, Aibou." Zangetsu says as he swings the large blade around to rest on his right shoulder. Snape pales a bit at the casual discussion of his impalement.

"Sorry about him. Zangetsu is more of a stab first, ask questions later kind of guy. So, um, how does this mental test thingy work?" Ichigo asks.

"We're already done." Snape replies, withdrawing from Ichigo's mind before he can get a reply. He doesn't want to spend any longer in the company of Zangetsu than he must.

* * *

Snape steps back from Ichigo and turns around, throwing out "Not a Death Eater." as he walks back to stand beside Moody.

"Alright. Seems the four of you are in the clear. Come 'ere and read this." He motions for them to come forward while pulling a slip of parchment out of his breast pocket. The four gather around him and read the message written in narrow handwriting: _The headquarters if the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London._

"Ano, what's the Or– "

"Shhhh!" Moody hisses, cutting Uryu off. "Not out here boy! Wait 'til we get inside."

"But there's no freaking number Twelve!" Ichigo hisses back.

"Focus on what you've read, boy." Snape says in a derisive tone.

Ichigo gets ready to snap a comeback when he notices the materializing form of number twelve.

"Come on, hurry!" Moody snaps. "We haven't got all night." He impatiently gestures to the house and the four grab their bags and quickly file in after him while Snape brings up the rear.

They found themselves in a decrepit entry way lit by old gas lamps. There was a tall old man with half-moon spectacles and a long silvery-white beard in midnight robes standing before them.

"Thank you for coming and welcome to the Order of the Phoenix."

* * *

**Please comment/review to tell me how I did.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note**

OMG! I can't believe how many people are already following this story. There's already the same amount of people following this as my other story, _The Flower and the Flame._ You guys are making me feel special.

Anywho, enjoy!

* * *

"Thank you for coming and welcome to the Order of the Phoenix." The old man states. "I'm Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's been a while, Mr. Hirako, Mr. Urahara. Now if you and your friends would be so kind as to follow me." He walks away, leading them farther into the house.

Ichigo and Uryu exchange confused glances, not really sure if these people are mistakenly believing spiritual powers to be magic or whether they're just delusional. Before either of them can ask, Shinji elbows them both in the ribs, a clear sign to say silent. They grab their bags and follow after the elderly headmaster as he led them to a small drawing room. They put their bags off to the side of the door while Dumbledore pulled out his wand and conjured seven comfy chintz chairs.

"Sit down, sit down." He gestures to the chairs, seating himself in one while Snape and Moody did the same. "I must admit, I'm a bit surprised that the two of you have hardly aged a day in the past thirty-four years, but I suppose that's besides the point. If I may ask, who are your young friends?" he asks as the others settle themselves into the remaining chairs.

"Ichigo Kurosaki and Uryu Ishida." Urahara replies, gesturing to the two boys in turn. "Kurosaki-san is a student of mine and Ishida-san is a distant cousin of his. They're both used to working together and some of our best among the younger people." Dumbledore nods his head, looking quite pleased with the additional help.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kurosaki, Mr. Ishida. Now to get down to business. I would like the four of you to be present at Hogwarts for this upcoming school year. The four of you would be brought in as a cultural exchange program. Mr. Kurosaki and Mr. Ishida are young enough to pass for fifth year students and thus capable of accompanying Mr. Potter and keeping an eye on him. I suppose Mr. Hirako could also pass himself as a fifth year student or you may join Mr. Urahara as a faculty member." He pauses, receiving nods of understanding from the Japanese men. "I'm not quite sure though what you could teach, Mr. Urahara. I remember you saying that the skills you use can't be learned by just anyone, so I wouldn't ask you to teach those. Of course, their combat specific nature would hardly be approved anyway, considering my current relations with the Ministry of Magic. I do hope you might have an idea for what kind of class you'd like to teach."

"Hmmm. I have a couple ideas, but I think a 'problem solving' class would be the most useful and have the easiest time getting past your Ministry." Urahara muses.

"Problem solving?" Snape derisively asks. "Just what would you _do _in that class?" he asks, silently worried about what the md scientist would teach after seeing his 'inner world' and meeting the 'Benihime-chan' personality within it.

"Nothing too complicated, Snape-san. I think it'd be an extra-curricular class, I'd teach on the weekends or something. As for what it teaches, well, I've noticed that you wizards are rather reliant on your wands, so I'd like to give the students a weekly challenge where magic, or at least straight-forward magic, won't allow them to complete it. The point would be to break the thought that because they have magic, it can solve all their problems." Urahara explains.

"Oooh. Count me in as a teacher. I wanna see a buncha gakis sittin' around confused on what ta do while I'm allowed ta call 'em stupid for not bein' able to figure simple stuff out." Shinji chimes in, wide grin on his face. Dumbledore frowns at his reasoning, but has to concede that with the class style Urahara has proposed it's probably better to have two teachers. He's also not sure what a 'gaki' is, but figures it's likely a semi-derogative term for students.

"Um, alright. Mr. Urahara and Mr. Hirako, you two will teach this 'problem solving' class, though it may go over better if we pick a better name for it." Dumbledore concedes. He turns to look at Ichigo and Uryu. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you two don't seem to know much about British wizarding, much like Mr. Urahara and Mr. Hirako when I first met them."

"No sir." "Nope."

"I see. Well, I'm sure Miss Granger will be happy to supply the two of you with the necessary reading materials to get you all caught up with her and the other fifth year students. It'll be a lot of work for the two of you to get it all in a month, but I'm sure she and the Weasley children will offer their assistance and advice. Mr. Potter as well when he gets here."

"We'll be sure to work on that, sir." Uryu replies while Ichigo groans at the thought of reading five years' worth of textbooks. Dumbledore chuckles along with Shinji and Urahara and Ichigo's response.

"I believe that will be all for now. If there is anything new and of importance, I'll br sure to let you know. For any further information you require, feel free to ask myself or other members of the Order as need be. Thank you again for coming to help on such short notice." Dumbledore says, rising from his chair to leave, the others following suite. He led them back out of the room and back to the entry way just in time for a short, semi-plump woman with coopery orange hair come out of another room.

"Oh! You four must be the help from Japan. I'm Molly Weasley." She exclaims, looking the four over. "All a bit thin, but nothing some feeding up won't fix. Come, come! I was just finishing up with making breakfast!" She quickly ushers the four foreign men into the kitchen, not noticing the slight looks of indignation Ichigo and Uryu were sporting. _I'm not skinny, I'm lithe. The hell I'm skinny, I'm lean!_ Shinji just chuckled under his breath at the younger two's self-consciousness. Mrs. Weasley went back to the stove to finish the last touches of breakfast while the four set their luggage aside once more and took seats at the long wooden table which was already occupied by a thin, balding, red-haired man who wore horn-rimmed glasses and was reading a newspaper. He looks up from his newspaper upon the guests' arrival and smiles.

"Arthur Weasley, pleasure to meet you. I'm sure you've already met my wife, Molly."

"Yes, a pleasure to meet you as well." Urahara returns the greeting. "I think we'll save introductions until everyone's down here to save some time." Mr. Weasley blinks in surprise at the decision, but nods his head in understanding.

"[Kurosaki]" Uryu nudges Ichigo in the side to get his attention. "[Is it just me, or do you see the pictures in that newspaper moving too?]" he whispers to Ichigo. Ichigo stares at the paper that Mr. Weasley has gone back to reading and his eyes widen.

"[Ah… I see it too. Man that's really weird.]" he replies, shaking his head. "[I'm just glad their photographs and not Rukia's crappy drawings.]" They both shudder at the thought of the abominable bunnies and bears moving around.

"[Agreed]"

Any further musings on the horrors of moving pictures is cut short by the shuffling arrival of still drowsy teenagers. Three teenage boys with ginger hair like the already present Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, two of which look almost exactly the same, and two girls, one with ginger hair like the boys and one with bushy brown hair, take seats around the table. It takes them a moment to wake up enough to take notice of the strangers at the table.

"Oi, who're you lot?" the youngest looking of the boys asks.

"I'm Shinji Hirako, the guy with the ridiculous hat is Kisuke Urahara. We'll be teachin' a special extra class at yer school this year." The busy haired girl's eyes light up at the mention of teaching and school. "The carrot-top's Ichigo Kurosaki and the four-eyes is Uryu Ishida. They're distant cousins an' will be attendin' the school with ya as transfer students."

"Ooh! It's nice to meet you, Professor Hirako, Professor Urahara. I'm Hermione Granger. I hope you don't' mind me asking, but what will you two be teaching? Is one of you the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?"

"No, no, my dear." Urahara happily replies, fan waving in front of his face. "We'll be teaching together, though I think we'll keep the subject a secret. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise." He chuckles.

"So who are the rest of you?" Ichigo cuts in.

"These are my children." Mrs. Weasley says, bringing plates laden with breakfast foods to the table. "The twins are Fred and George, then there's Ron and Ginny." She lists off, each waving with their name. "Now dig in."

The food brings silence as everyone tucks in, small talk starting after the first few bites. Once they're done eating, Ichigo and Uryu look to their bags.

"Ano, Weasley-san," Uryu starts, "where can we put our luggage?"

"Yeah, I'm tired of hauling mine around." Ichigo seconds.

"Oh, right! I'm terribly sorry about that, dearies. They'll be staying in the room next to yours, so show them up, will you Ron. If you'll follow me, I'll show you to your rooms, Mr. Hirako, Mr. Urahara." Mrs. Weasley says, getting up from the table while Ron begrudgingly gets up to comply with his mother's request. The foreigners grab their bags and followed their designated guides to their rooms. As they were storing their things away, a ringing could be heard.

"Wazzat?" Ron asks, staring around nervously.

"Sorry." Ichigo says, fishing into his pants pocket and pulling out what looks like a cell phone. "Looks like Inoue's calling." He comments, looking at the screen as he hits the answer button. "Moshi moshi?"

"[_Forgetting something, Kurosaki?]"_

"Grimmjow." Ichigo growls and Ron takes a step back at the feral tone. "[How the hell did you get Inoue's denreishinki?]"

"[_Ha! Do you know how easy it is to kidnap your woman when you're not around? If you want her back then you better get your ass over here for our monthly match!]"_ Grimmjow taunts.

"[Bastard! Did you have to freaking kidnap my girlfriend? How the hell am I supposed to get to Hueco Mundo when I'm not even in Karakura or the Soul Society?!]"Ichigo fumes, worried about Orihime's safety.

"_[Ain't my problem, Strawberry, but if you want to see her again you better find a way.]"_

"[How do I know you didn't just take her phone? Let me talk to her.]" Ichigo growls.

"[_Keh. Fine.]"_ Ichigo can hear movement on the other end of the line. "_[Kurosaki-kun? Can you hear me?]"_

"[Inoue! Are you all right? That cat bastard hasn't tried anything right?]" Ichigo quickly questions.

"_[I'm alright. Grimmjow-san just took me from my home. We're just sitting at the meeting place. I'm sorry about this.]"_ he can hear the forming of tears in her voice.

"[It's alright, Inoue. It's not your fault.]" he soothes her. "[I'll get there as fast as I can, okay? I'll come and get you, I promise.]"

"_[Thank yo– Well ain't that sweet. Still tryin' to play knight in shining armor, Kurosaki? Just remember you gotta get your ass over here before you can try saving her.]"_ Grimmjow cackles before abruptly hanging up. Ichigo growls, turning for the door and Ron quickly moves out of the way, scared of his deadly aura and heavy scowl.

"[I'm going to cut that stupid cat's arm off again for this.]" Ichigo fumes as he stalks out of the room.

"What was _that_ about?" Ron asks, a look of fear on his face.

"Well, I could only hear half the conversation, but from the sound of it, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, a… rival of Kurosaki, has kidnapped Kurosaki's girlfriend, Orihime Inoue, to get him to have their monthly battle that Kurosaki missed because he came here." Uryu calmly explains, not seeing anything too odd about this situation.

"Shouldn't you be helping him or something? I mean doesn't that Or-eh-he-may girl need saving?" Ron asks in a distressed tone.

Uryu scoffs, "Why would I help that moron? He's the one who caused his mess, so he can be the one to fix it. Besides, I'd just be pointlessly endangering myself trying to get in between those two idiots." Ron just stares at him, unable to understand how Uryu can be so calm, make a kidnapping look like it was _normal. _"Look, just don't worry about it. Kurosaki is completely capable of handling it and I'm sure he'll be back before dinner, possibly lunch." Ron still looks perturbed at this turn of events, but he's at least calmed down by Uryu's confidence that things will be fine. Uryu sighs, "Come on, I believe your mother mentioned something about cleaning this house."

"Uh, right." Ron uncertainly replies, following Uryu out of the room and back downstairs.

* * *

Urahara and Shinji were unpacking their things when they felt Ichigo's restrained reiatsu and killing intent spike up.

"Well somebody pissed the kid off." Shinji off-handedly comments just as the door slams open and Ichigo comes barreling through. He goes straight for Urahara and punches the shopkeeper in the face.

"[YOU BASTARD! You _know_ that me and Grimmjow have that stupid fight once a month! You set up the deal for that _yourself_! So tell me why the _hell_ we didn't take care of that _before_ we left and he _kidnapped_ Inoue!]" Ichigo roars, grabbing Urahara by the collar and dragging him up from where he fell to the ground. "[You better have a way to get me to Hueco Mundo, Geta-boshi,]" Ichigo growls, "[or I _swear_ I will shove your hat down your throat and your zanpakuto up your ass.]"

Urahara gulps. His nose was throbbing, though he supposed he was lucky it wasn't broken. Ichigo would have broken his nose if he hadn't gotten that small step back. Urahara had forgotten how _violent_ Ichigo could get when you actually got past annoying him to his true temper. It probably didn't help that Ichigo was now much more open with the hollow side of himself, leading to more violent and instinctual responses when he was particularly stressed. _Note to self, try not to let Inoue-san get kidnapped again if I values my handsome face._

"[Now calm down, Kurosaki-san.]" Urahara tries, only to get a growl and small shake in response. "[If you'd be so kind as to _let_ _go_ of me, I happen to have the equipment in my bag to make a garganta. It'll only take a few minutes to set up and once you're done slaying the panther and rescuing the princess, you can call me on your denreishinki and I'll open the path back.]" This answer seems to mollify Ichigo since he lets go of Urahara, allowing him to fall back to the floor.

"[Good. You'll take care of my body while I'm gone, right?]" the question comes out like a command, though Urahara's not really surprised, so he nods his head as he noses around in his bag for his equipment. Satisfied, Ichigo reaches into his pocket and grips his substitute badge, releasing his soul from his body. After setting his body on one of the beds, he reaches for the black bands around his wrists only for Shinji to stop him.

"[Leave those on until you're in Hueco Mundo, ya idiot. We don't need ya crushing the folks around here with yer uncontrolled reiatsu.]" he drawls, looking Ichigo in the eye. Ichigo's eyes widen a bit before he lowers his head.

"[Right, sorry.]" Ichigo quietly concedes. He sometimes forgets that not everyone can stand up to his base levels of reiatsu.

"[Alright, we're all set to go!]" Urahara merrily exclaims. "[Hirako-san if you would just hold this and put some reiatsu into it, we'll get started. _In my right hand, the stone that connects the worlds. In my left hand, the blade that binds existence. The black-haired shepherd. The chair of the noose. I strike the ibis when the clouds gather._]" Urahara intones and a rip forms in the air between the two orbs that Urahara and Shinji are holding. "[Good luck, Kurosaki-san.]" With those words, Ichigo jumps through the rift in space and it snaps closed behind him. Urahara lets out a little sigh.

"[Ya know, I was wondering on how ya planned to get Orihime-chan here when ya showed up with just those two morons.]" Shinji muses. "[Didn' think you were gonna do somethin' this elebrate to get her here. So why'd ya pick this method?]"

Urahara chuckles. "[Do you know how _expensive_ it is to fly here from Japan? This way saves money and the hassle of Kurosaki-san being grumpy for the whole trip because guys can't keep their eyes off of Inoue-san.]"

"[But ya don't have any of her stuff here.]" Shinji points out.

"[That's cheaper to fix than plane tickets.]" Urahara cheerily responds. Shinji just shakes his head.

"[Ichigo's gonna murder ya if you keep playin' games like this with him. 'Specially when ya involve Orihime-chan.]"

* * *

As soon as his feet touch the sands of Hueco Mundo, Ichigo slips the reiatsu restraining bands off his wrists and twines them around his phone. He sets off at high speeds to where he can feel _her_, only slightly reassured by her calm reiatsu. He can't help the worry that settles in him whenever he comes here, whenever he goes to fight in front of her. Soon enough, he arrives to see her sitting on the ruins of an old building, Grimmjow leaning against a broken pillar not too far away. He stops and stares. Orihime is wearing sandals, short shorts, and _that_ top. The top that Urahara made for her in the last war. The top that has a freaking _boob window_. It's not that Ichigo doesn't like that top, he does, even if he won't admit it out loud because he doesn't want to sound like a pervert. What he doesn't like is other guys getting to see her in that top. They're all perverts and she's _his_ girlfriend. He growls.

"What the hell, Grimmjow. You couldn't let her change her clothes first?" Ichigo had noticed the slight shivers wracking her from the cool desert air. Orihime blushes, she thought she was lucky the inpatient arrancar could be convinced to grab her sandals so she wasn't running around barefoot.

"What, and ruin the show?" Grimmjow grins. "I don–" he doesn't get to finish the sentence as Ichigo launches himself at Grimmjow, zanpakuto drawn and trying to split him in half. Grimmjow laughs manically as he barely gets his own zanpakuto up in time and they plough throw the pillar. This would be a _great_ fight. Grimmjow had Ichigo going for blood from the first blow, a fight to the death, just the way Grimmjow liked it.

"Hahahahaha! Yeah! That's the way, Kurosaki! Let's fight to the death! Now _Grind, Pantera!_"

"Bankai!"

Power surges across their battlefield, whipping the sands high into the sky, drowning the area in their powerful reiatsus. Orihime summons her Santen Kesshun to protect herself from the onslaught of sand and reiatsu. They're both so strong, but there's really no doubt in her mind that Ichigo will win. He always wins when it's for her. She pouts though. Urahara had told her about the impending trip to England and when she expressed the willingness to pay for her own air-fare, he told her not to worry and that he'd send Kurosaki-kun to pick her up. What he had _not _told her was that it would be because Grimmjow would be taking her to Hueco Mundo to lure her boyfriend in for a fight. Now all of her things were still packed in a suitcase back at her apartment and she wasn't sure how to get them. Grimmjow wasn't going to go back for them and Hueco Mundo's other residents wouldn't come anywhere _near_ the raging battle between the two. In fact, they wouldn't come into the area for _hours_ after the reiatsu output died down. _Mou, Urahara-san is so mean, not giving me any warning._ She sighs. Ichigo will give her a jacket or something when they return to the world of the living because he's very gentlemanly, but that doesn't change the fact that she'll look like a pervert to everyone there because she'll either be in this revealing outfit or in something Ichigo lends her. She hides her face in her hands in mortification. _I'm going to make a horrible first impression! Oh why'd I choose to wear this today?_ Orihime is snapped from those thoughts by a large explosion and Grimmjow's crazed laughter. _This isn't the time to be worrying about that. I need to pay attention so I can heal them as soon as they're done._

* * *

As Urahara and Shinji finish unpacking, Moody comes lumbering in.

"Dumbledore asked me to fill you two in some on Order business." Moody states without preamble. "Personally, I'd like to know what just happened with your friend here." He points to Ichigo's unoccupied body. "But the Order comes first."

"Maa, and here I thought we could keep things under tabs for at least a month, but such is luck." Urahara laments. "Though I ask that in exchange for that information you tell me how you knew something happened." He says in a more serious tone, a keen glint in his eye as his sharper intellect is on display. Moody feels a slight unease as the fool's façade melts off of Urahara to reveal the man who could plot the downfall of a wanna-be god. Snape had mentioned that the 'fool in a hat' was much smarter than he let on, but Moody hadn't expected this much.

"So just who were we called in ta deal with?" Shinji cuts in, easing the tension.

"What makes you think there's someone in particular you're here to deal with?" Moody questions back, wondering just how much they know about the current situation.

" 'Cause Dumbledore's a nice fella and we ain't stupid." Shinji retorts. "One: Dumbledore's nice. He wouldn't call in folks like us that he knows specialize in devastating violence unless he figured that you wizards couldn't do anything to deal with the problem. Two: Ya don't call for foreign aid in private, low-key battles like this when it could cause ya more trouble. Not unless ya need the know-how to match an enemy's foreign help. And three: We could sense the faint traces of foreign reiatsu on yer friend this mornin' and it's pretty obvious to me an' Kisuke that he's yer spy. We've seen some real high level cloak-n-dagger shit, got almost literally stabbed in the back 'cause of it, so we can tell."

"Hmph." Moody eyes the two of them. "I can see you've been through some rough times. It's all in the eyes." He mutters. He reaches into his coat to remove his wand. "Since these are some secretive matters and we don't need the kids getting into this, I'll be putting up some privacy spells." Moody begins to mutter the wards and wave his wand.

"I hope you don't mind us adding a few barriers ourselves." Urahara says and receiving a nod from Moody, begins his own chanting. Moody looks at Urahara in surprise, even as he continue his own ward creation, because Urahara isn't using a wand. _Just what all are these people capable of?_

Once they are done constructing their barriers, Moody reaches into his coat one more and pulls out some papers. "These four would be why you've been asked to come. This is all the info we've got on them, along with a few sketches." He says, handing the papers over to Urahara and Shinji. The two leaf through them, before going back to the sketches and descriptions of their powers. The sketches reveal a young girl with short cropped hair arranged in long bangs on the sides and spiked out in the back, a pair of nearly identical faces, one with a slightly more feminine look and bangs sweeping to the right while the more masculine face has bangs sweeping to the left, and the final face is male with a Day of the Dead style mask on the left side of his face, wild patterns swirling across it.

"[We're lookin' at an arrancar, twin shinigami, and a fullbringer if this data's accurate.]"Shinji comments.

"[Hmm. Yes. The twins are likely rogues, possibly like Zaraki-taicho in that they were able to acquire an asuachi off of a dead officer for personal use. We'll have to contact Xcution to see if they know anything about the fullbringer and Halibel-san about the arrancar. I'll have to get into the Soul Society data banks and see if I can't find something on these twins.]"

"[Yeah, no kiddin'. These are pretty poor reports. Nothin' in them 'bout the special abilities they possess or even their fightin' styles. We're gonna be goin' in blind if we can't get info out of the others on them.]" Shinji bitterly replies.

"If you don't mind," Moody sarcastically starts, "speak _English_ so I can understand what you're saying." He growls.

"Apologies, Moody-san. We were discussing how to acquire more information on these individuals as your reports are left wanting in describing their combat capabilities." Urahara replies.

"What do you mean 'left wanting'? They've got plenty of information on their 'combat capabilities'." Moody retorts.

"Maybe for you wizards, but for us, this just says they know their basics." Shinji pointedly says, waving the sheaf of papers for emphasis. "Ya need to understand that when it comes to our powers, there's shit that everyone can learn to do and then there's personal abilities. Everyone who learns one of our power types develops a special skill that they and they alone can use. Some of these abilities may be similar, but they're never exactly the same. Now Kisuke and me are veteran fighters, there's a lot of experience between us. You'd be hard pressed to find a person smarter than Kisuke. Ichigo has the most raw power out of all the people I know. Really piss him off and you'll be lucky to make it out alive. Ishida is a walking archive of over a millennium's worth of techniques and knowledge. Orihime-chan, who Ichigo left to pick up, can heal _any_ physical wound. But even with all the skill and power we bring to the table, we need to know their personal skills because even if they don't have as much power as us, if they've got the right ability, they can still beat us." Shinji explains, a hard look in his eyes.

"Hmmm. I think I get it, but I'm afraid what you have in your hands is all we have. Snape hasn't got close enough to try legilimency on them."

"Legilimency?" Urahara questions.

"Mind reading magic it's what Snape used to verify you lot weren't Death Eaters." Shinji snickers and Moody glares at him.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just funny. 'Death Eaters'." He shakes his head. "It's almost more pretentious then shinigami." Moody raises an eyebrow.

"Shinigami translates roughly to 'death god' " Urahara explains. "Though the shinigami that we speak of are by no means real 'gods', more along the lines of a western psychopomp. Shinigami is rather a pretentious title that the… sub-species of powerful souls call themselves." Urahara explains with a shrug. Moody opens his mouth to ask more questions, but Urahara continues, "Before you can ask, I suppose I'll continue on to explain a bit more about what these folks," he gestures to the papers, "are. The twins in here appear to be shinigami, most easily distinguished by the constant presence of their swords, known as zanpakuto which translates to 'soul slayers', and their lack of a mask fragment or hole in some part of their anatomy. Their special abilities will stem from their zanpakuto in what is called a shikai state. Shikai are called forth with a command and the zanpakuto's name, setting off a reaction in the blade that causes it to change form and or unleash a special ability. Those with a mask fragment, hole in their anatomy, and a zanpakuto are called arrancars, which is what the other fellow in your reports is. They are hollows, which are soul eating, instinctual monsters, that have regained their intellect by gaining shinigami powers. When they release their zanpakuto, their resurreccion, it causes a change in their physical form, reverting them back closer to the monsters they once were. The last one in your reports, the girl, is a fullbringer. Fullbringers are humans with hollow-like abilities and can manipulate the souls of inanimate objects to help them in combat. They also have one item that they have a strong connection with that they can transform to better utilize and draw out their true ability. All of these powers an have a wide range of effects, from just increasing physical abilities to more complicated things like illusions."

Moody nods, "That's why you need the particulars of their abilities then, you don't know what these shikai, resurreccion, or fullbring things do. You could get completely blindsided without even a hint at what their ability is."

"Glad to see ya do know some stuff 'bout the battlefield." Shinji grins.

"I was on the Auror force for nearly forty years. I've been through Grindelwald's War as well as the one with You-Know-Who. You don't last that long on the force, especially through a couple of wars with some of the most powerful dark wizards the world has seen, without knowing how to hold your own in a fight." Moody explains. "So do you think you could take them?"

"Eh, probably." Shinji says with a shrug. "Like I said before, we're a pretty strong group. It'd take some serious cheat abilities and a lot of power for them to stand a chance against us."

Moody nods. "Good to hear. So what happened with the boy earlier? It looked like he split into two then left through a hole in the air."

Urahara chuckles. "That's not too far from the truth. What you saw was Kurosaki-san's soul, or I suppose you could also call it his consciousness, leave his body. The 'hole in the air' is what we call a garganta and it connects to Hueco Mundo" Urahara noticed a slight worried look overcome Moody at the mention of a connection to somewhere else. "No need to worry, I connecting garganta could only be opened from this side from what I've observed. Kurosaki-san left for Hueco Mundo in order to have a match with a rival of his and retrieve his girlfriend and final member of our party, Orihime Inoue." Moody nods his head in understanding. "So how did you know about Kurosaki-san's departure?"

"This eye," Moody points to his electric blue eye, "is magical. It can see through most materials for a good distance. Saw it all from down below."

"Nice trick, Moody." Shinji says.

"Yeah, well I won't deny it." Moody says, turning to leave. "I'll leave those papers with you. I've got other business to attend to. I'm sure I'll be seeing you two later."

* * *

It's so weird, this story just wants to be written in chapters longer than what I'm used to. Oh well. I was debating between having Urahara teach a science class and the problem solving class, but I realized that the problem solving works better. There's a little Grimmjow in the chapter for those who like him. He some other Bleach characters will pop up every now in then, but it's mostly going to be just Ichigo, Uryu, Orihime, Shinji, and Urahara, probably Yoruichi too. Sorry to disappoint you _mugetsu929_, but while I like cross-overs, I don't really care for crossed romance and as you can see in this chapter, I've set Ichigo as taken. Um, that's all can think to say on this chapter.

**Please review/comment to tell me how I did.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note**

To those of you who don't like my shipping, too bad 3_3 It's staying, you however, are free to go find something else to read. To those who are hesitant on it, don't worry, it's not going to be the main highlight of the story. This isn't a heavy romance, it's Bleach characters messing with Harry Potter.

Anywho, enjoy the chapter!

* * *

"It was bloody weird." Ron finishes, explaining the quick conversation he had with Uryu after Ichigo's departure to the rest of the underaged wizards and witches as they clean out one of the many rooms in the Black mansion. The others had heard the loud yelling and seen Ichigo storm through the hallway to the older foreigners' room, so they had of course asked Ron what was going on.

"No kidding. Someone got _kidnapped_ and they're acting like it's perfectly normal." Ginny comments.

"I'm more concerned about how they plan to actually _do_ anything." Hermione states. "They're going into the fifth year, so he's too young to aparate on his own. Even if he did get one of the Professors to take him, it's still quite a few jumps to aparate halfway around the world. I suppose they could use a portkey, but they'd have to make an illegal one on such short notice and that would just cause trouble. They could use the floo network, maybe, but I don't think they went downstairs." The others watch as Hermione wracks her brain for a feasible way for Ichigo to get back to Japan quickly.

"Well, if you're sooo curious–"

" –why not ask that Uryu fellow." The twins suggest.

"I don't want to interrupt his studying. He's got a lot to catch up on since apparently the Japanese curriculum is completely different from what we learn at Hogwarts." Hermione gets a faraway look in her eye as she thinks about all the different things she could learn from the Japanese. She had to give him all of her old textbooks to go over. _Maybe I can get some of his old textbooks to go over_.

"I can't believe that guy's got a girlfriend." One of the twins says.

"Right. Didn't exactly come across as one of the nicest blokes out there." The other replies.

"I could see it." Ginny says, gaining stares from all the boys. "What? You didn't notice his build? He's one of those slim but kind of muscley guys that lots of girls like, not to mention that some really like the whole punk, bad boy attitude." Ginny explains, rolling her eyes at the denseness of her brothers. _Honestly, boys!_

"Ginny's right, you know. It's not like he's ugly and I'm sure some would find him attractive. Besides, we don't really know a lot about their personalities, he could be a very kind and caring boyfriend. He did go charging off to save her, after all." Hermione adds on.

"Yeah, whatever." Ron says and they lapse back into silence for a bit before picking up small conversations again.

* * *

Ichigo drops a bloody and unconscious Grimmjow a meter or so from Orihime before plopping down himself between the two, closer to Orihime than Grimmjow. He is also covered in blood and wounds, but not as bad as the ex-sexta. Both are back in their base forms, tired from their intense battle. She summons her Souten Kisshun over them and begins to undo their wounds. Ichigo lets out a content sigh as his wounds and aches disappear under her healing dome, letting her gentle reiatsu wash away the pain.

"You know if you resist him you could probably get away and avoid things like this." Ichigo calmly comments, having worked almost all of his aggression and frustration out in the fight. He flips open his denreishinki and texts Urahara to prepare a garganta back as Orihime fidgets and keeps her eyes on the shield.

"I know." She quietly says, peeking up and receiving a look that says to explain why she doesn't. "I just don't like fighting or hurting people and I'm not strong enough to take him on my own, so someone else would show up to help and I don't want them to get hurt. I don't like it when you get hurt either, but Urahara-san set it up so you have to fight Grimmjow-san once a month so I kind of have to let it happen." Her fingers nervously intertwine. Ichigo sighs softly. It's just like her to be worried about others' safety over her own. _I suppose that's why it's my job to freak the hell out and worry over her. She never worries enough about herself._ He hardly notices the hypocritical nature of his thoughts.

"Haaah. I know, it just worries me when stuff like this happens to you." A sly grin spreads across his lips. "It makes me feel like you have some knight-in-shining-armor fetish, so you let yourself get kidnapped so I can come to your rescue." Orihime's face turns red in embarrassment. Ichigo inwardly chuckles. _Sometimes it's too fun to tease her_.

"No, no, no! It's nothing like that!" she protests, head quickly shaking side-to-side. "Not that Kurosaki-kun doesn't make a great knight in shining armor," her eyes glaze over for a moment as she imagines him gallantly riding a horse in highly polished armor before she snaps back to attention, "but I most certainly do not get kidnapped on purpose." Ichigo just chuckles at her antics, gentle smile on his face. It turns serious as his eyes drift down her form before snapping back up to her face.

"Why are you wearing that?" he sharply asks.

"Oh, umm," she goes back to nervously fidgeting, remembering his initial spoken thoughts on this particular top, "it was really super hot today back in Karakura, so since I wasn't going anywhere I wore this because it's nice and cool. I didn't expect to be leaving so suddenly, especially for that trip to England to help Urahara-san." She looks up at him, feeling a slight spike in his reiatsu, wondering what has caught his attention. Ichigo lets loose a little growl, glaring off into the distance. _Damn Geta-boshi planned the whole damn thing. Bastard! When I get my hands on him…_ Orihime quickly realizes that Urahara probably didn't inform Ichigo that she would be joining them and that this method of travel for her obviously annoys him. "Ah, but it's not Urahara-san's fault! I should've realized when Grimmjow-san decided to use me for a hostage so you'd come fight him was an easy way to get halfway around the world. You know using two garganta and all." She tries to calm Ichigo, or at least dampen his attempts at plotting painful retribution against Urahara.

"That's a poor excuse and you know it." Ichigo growls, well aware that she's being her kind self and trying to tame his temper for Urahara's safety. "Besides it's not like he's gonna die if a beat him up." He grumbles. "You'll be right there to patch him up when I'm done, even though he doesn't deserve it." Orihime gives him her best pout, having learned about a week into their relationship that if she pouted he usually caves in, though she was reluctant to use that card unless she felt there was no other way to change his mind. "Don't give me that look. Urahara damn well deserves it." She just keeps pouting, battering his will with her pleading look. "Agh! Dammit, fine." He exasperatedly says, throwing his hands in the air. "I won't beat Urahara to a bloody pulp, but I'm still punching him at least once!" Orihime smiles. She is satisfied with the reduced levels of violence.

"You are so whipped, Kurosaki." Grimmjow taunts, having regained consciousness sometime during the couple's conversation. Ichigo turns to him with a scowl, a growl slipping up his throat. "Lemme outta this dome, Princessa. I don't need you to patch me up any more than this. Besides, I hate seeing him being such a pansy ass." Grimmjow states, pointing with his thumb at Ichigo. "Makes him look damn pathetic."

"Shut up, Grimmjow! I can still kick your sorry ass any day of the week!" Ichigo retorts, eliciting a growl from Grimmjow. Orihime sighs internally, _If they keep going like this I'm going to have to wait through a second round. _

"Alright, Grimmjow-san. Please be careful though, I was only able to heal the major wounds." Orihime says, hoping to cut off the growing fight between the two. Her Souten Kisshun withdraws from around Grimmjow so that only Ichigo is being treated by its golden glow.

"Tch. You worry too much, Princessa. See ya, Strawberry. Don't go dying unless I'm the one killing you." Grimmjow casually waves as he walks away before disappearing in a burst of sonido. He may not like it, but Ichigo won, again, and spared his life, yet again, so he'd back off, for now. _Next time'll be different. I'll kick that bastard's ass and end his damn life. To hell with his goody-two shoes act! I'll tear him to pieces and prove I am the KING!_

"Bastard." Ichigo mumbles under his breath while Orihime just beams.

"That's just his way of expressing concern, Kurosaki-kun."

"Hmph, yeah right. The day Grimmjow is concerned about someone is the day Nel gives up on playing Eternal Tag forever."

The two sit in silence for a while, both keeping to their own thoughts. After a couple of minutes, Orihime finishes healing Ichigo's wounds.

"Do you want me to replenish your reiryoku too?" she asks.

"Nah, I'm fine. You should save your energy." He replies calmly. She nods and the golden dome dissipates as her fairies return to her hairpins. A garganta opens next to them. "Looks like our way outta here has arrived. Come on, let's go." He says, getting up and heading for the garganta.

"Wait, Kurosaki-kun! Don't you need to put your limiters back on?" she asks, concerned for the safety of the people on the other side of the garganta. Ichigo looks down at his wrists and scowls. He's had to wear the limiters ever since the war with the Vandenreich and they _suck_. It feels absolutely weird to have his reiryoku stay trapped within his body, like there's something just beneath his skin waiting to get out, making it feel almost as if his own skin is too tight. Whatever adjustments Urahara's made for leaving Karakura have only increased this feeling. He's considered trying to get Urahara to make something like Kenpachi's eye patch, but the thought of something draining his reiatsu when he could need its full might at any moment never really sat well with him. He grumbles as he unwinds the bands from around his denreishinki and slips them back on. _I suppose it's not as bad when I've used up some reiryoku, but they're such a pain in the ass when I've got full reserves._

"All right, they're on. Let's go before something decides to show up." He grumbles, stepping through the garganta and onto his newly made path. He's gotten slightly better at making paths through the garganta, Uryu likes to brag that it's because of the Quincy training he's been giving Ichigo in their spare time. Orihime just giggles, knowing that nothing will show up in the area for several hours, as she follows him through, walking lightly on the path he's made.

* * *

Urahara's nose throbs once again from the abuse it's been subjected to. _My poor face._ He thought he had actually been getting away without being assaulted again when Ichigo had spun on his heel and rammed his elbow into Urahara's unsuspecting face as soon as Orihime stepped through the garganta. He was now lying on the floor, clutching his bloody nose and whining about mean students who don't appreciate him. Shinji was sitting on the bed, snickering and watching the show with a wide, amused grin.

"[Shut up, Geta-boshi!]" Ichigo says, reentering his body before walking back up to Urahara and digging his heel into the shopkeeper's stomach, grinding it in for more impact. "[You're lucky I promised Inoue I wouldn't do worse, so quit your damn whining.]" He growls, teeth grit in frustration.

"[Nice outfit, Orihime-chan.]" Shinji comments, mostly to see what kind of reaction h can get out of Ichigo. Orihime blushes and brings her arms up to cover her chest from his lecherous smirk. Shinji instinctively shudders at the murderous aura Ichigo is now emitting.

"[Quit staring, you damn pervert!]" he roars, eyes flashing gold in his anger, taking a step towards Shinji, impending violence in his movements.

"[Sheesh, take it easy.]" Shinji admonishes, hands held up in surrender. "[I was just messin' with ya. Though ya might wanna get her in somethin' else considerin' there's three other teenage guys that I doubt are as reserved as you were at their age.]"

Ichigo huffs in response. "[Fine. Do you want just a shirt, or do you want some sweat pants too, Inoue?]" he asks turning to her.

"[Oh, ummm, I think just a shirt will be fine.]" she replies. "[Um, thank you, Kurosaki-kun.]" she shyly says, shifting nervously and staring at her feet. _I'm such a burden_.

Ichigo steps up and ruffles her hair. "[Don't sweat it.]" He turns and glares at the room's other occupants. "[If you two try anything, I swear you'll regret it.]" he threatens before leaving the room.

"[Well, now that he's out of here, I can give you this.]" Urahara says, pulling a purple bra out of his suitcase. Orihime turns bright red and Shinji just stares.

"[The hell did ya get _that_, Kisuke?]" Shinji asks in blatant shock.

"[Hmmm? Yoruichi-san gave it to me. She guessed that Inoue-san might get taken without one, so she insisted I take this for Inoue-san.]" Urahara calmly replies, slight grin on his face. "[Now hide it quickly Inoue-san. I don't think my nose can take much more from Kurosaki-san.]" Urahara encourages, rubbing his nose once the bra is removed from his hands.

Moments later Ichigo comes in with a large, gray t-shirt and quickly ushers Orihime out of the room to the bathroom so she can change. She comes out moments later, stretching her arms in the air and yawning, the special top scrunched up in one hand. The shirt hangs a bit loose on her, helping to conceal her bust a bit and reaching down to cover her butt. Ichigo turns red upon noticing the discarded top, knowing what undergarments won't fit under it, mostly because he has to help with laundry at home and has two little sisters.

"[Umm, Inoue?]" he hesitantly asks. "[Are you sure it's alright to take that off?]" he questions, shakily pointing to the removed top, struggling to keep his mind away from the gutter. He had only meant for the shirt to be a cover-up, not a completely new top.

"[It's fine, Kurosaki-kun. Yoruichi-san sent a bra with Urahara-san just in case.]" she happily replies smiling at him. He scowls, but before he can go back to hit the perverted shopkeeper again, the Weasley kids and Hermione come out of the room they were cleaning and spot the two in the hallway.

"Who is _that_?" Ron asks, staring bewildered at the beauty before him. The twins are in a similar state of shock as all three take in the curves that are partially covered up by the over-sized shirt and the long, bare legs left revealed by the short shorts. Hermione hits Ron over the back of the head while Ginny gets the twins when they notice the beauty's discomfort at the stares and the frightening scowl of the orange-haired boy.

"It's rude to stare." Hermione admonishes before turning to Orihime. "I'm Hermione Granger, it's nice to meet you." She says, holding out a hand.

Orihime's face splits into a large grin. "Orihime Inoue, hajimemashite." She says, readily shaking hands with the young witch.

"Wait… you're the girl that got kidnapped!" Ron exclaims in a moment of clarity.

"Ronald!" Hermione scolds.

"Oh no, that's quite alright. I did kidnapped after all, hehehe." Orihime rubs the back of her head as she nervously laughs. "But Kurosaki-kun saved me just like he always does, so there's no problem!" she cheers, pumping a fist.

"Do you get, um… kidnapped often?" Ginny hesitantly asks, voicing the thought that runs through the others heads at them mention of 'like always'.

"Nope." Orihime replies with a grin. "It's only really happened once before, though he did get me back only for me get taken again during that rescue, but he still saved me in the end." She says, tapping her chin as she gets lost in thought. "Eto, I'm sorry, but who are the rest of you?" she questions.

The Weasley kids blink, realizing that they haven't introduced themselves. "I'm Ginny Weasley. These are my brothers, Ron, Fred, and George." Ginny says, pointing to Ron then gesturing to the twins. "It's nice to meet you." She offers a hand to Orihime that the beauty happily shakes.

"Oh. You're here, Inoue-san. I thought I sensed you. I'm guessing Urahara-san has something to do with you being here." Uryu speculates as he approaches the group from down the hallway.

"Ishida-kun!" she squeals, pleasure in seeing the Quincy there evident as she gives him a quick hug and earning a small growl from Ichigo.

"Damn Geta-boshi planned the whole thing, though why he couldn't get her here in a way where she has her stuff with her is beyond me." Ichigo grumbles, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"She didn't get to bring anything with her?" Uryu asks, already aware that Orihime is wearing one of Ichigo's shirts and noting the 'special' top that is still crumpled up in one hand. He blushes a bit at the memory of her wearing that top. _That thing's lethal. Not only to the male mind, but because Kurosaki would shred them for looking._

"How the hell could she? Grimmjow freaking kidnapped her and then I rescued her. There wasn't exactly a chance to stop by her apartment and grab her things." Ichigo supplies.

"Hermione and I can share with her until she gets some more clothes and stuff." Ginny offers, Hermione nodding in agreement.

"Ano, are you sure? I wouldn't want to trouble you. I am your guest after all." Orihime quietly frets, staring down at her feet.

"Of course." Hermione confirms. "We can't just let you run around in the same outfit for days. It'd be wrong when we could do something about it."

"Arigato, Hermione-chan, Ginny-chan." Orihime sincerely says with a little bow.

At this time, Mrs. Weasley comes up the stairs to gather everyone for lunch. She starts in surprise noticing that there is an extra person, a girl, in the group in the hallway.

Shaking her head, she clears her throat and announces, "Lunch is ready."

"Finally, I'm starving." Ron proclaims as everyone heads for the stairs, eager to have something to eat.

"And who might you be, dearie?" Mrs. Weasley politely questions Orihime.

"Orihime Inoue, hajimemashite!" Orihime replies, flashing one of her bright smiles. Mrs. Weasley smiles in return, _What nice manners this girl has_.

"Molly Weasley," she introduces herself in turn.

Lunch is a loud and noisy affair in which Uryu, Ichigo, and Orihime are bombarded with questions about themselves and their schooling, mostly from Hermione. Uryu asks questions in turn about what he's read from the textbooks while Orihime is happy to make a general conversation. Ichigo growls and acts grumpy for the most part, but it doesn't take too long for the Weasleys and Hermione to realize that it is, in general, just that, an act. He is enjoying the conversation and comradery as much as Orihime and Uryu, though like Ichigo, Uryu seems to hide behind a slight façade of indifference. The boys heckle Ichigo about getting such a beauty for a girlfriend, eliciting growls and fiery retorts, amusing them to no end. Uryu and Hermione have a near constant stream of dialogue on the particulars of the Hogwarts curriculum and what is covered before the fifth year while Orihime and Ginny happily chat about girl things, sometimes dragging Hermione out of her intellectual conversation with Uryu while the boys take those opportunities to drag Uryu into their conversation.

Once lunch is over, the Weasleys plus Hermione go back to cleaning the house while Ichigo, Uryu, and Orihime retreat to Ichigo and Uryu's shared room to study the materials they've been given.

* * *

"[Ugh. This is too much.]" Ichigo groans, looking at the small stacks of books that they need to have at least _skimmed_ _over_ before the end of the month. "[How the hell are we supposed to learn all of this?]"

"[What if we got Urahara-san to make clones of us that when they disappear, we receive all that they've learned. It'd be just like a manga!]" Orihime suggests, imagination ready to run wild after an hour of study.

"[I don't think he can do that, Inoue-san.]" Uryu says.

Meanwhile, Ichigo's face lights up with an idea inspired by Orihime's crazy thought. He concentrates on the energies inside him and pulls. In a swirls of black and blue energy, his zanpakuto spirits manifest themselves onto the real world. Uryu and Orihime flinch at the sudden presence of the two blade spirits.

"[Oi, Aibou!]" the hollow half barks. "[Why the hell're you callin' me an' the ossan out?]" he demands.

"[Yes, Kurosaki. Why indeed.]" Uryu adds on.

"[So they can help me get through these books.]" Ichigo replies, holding up one of the books. "[It's like Inoue's idea. They can read the books and then it'll be like I've read them too. I can get through them three times faster this way.]" Ichigo explains, smug grin spreading across his face, proud of the plan he's devised. The Quincy half of Zangetsu gives his wielder a small, proud smile, glad that Ichigo is using his head to solve his problems, but more so that he has decided to rely on them some. He picks up one of the transfiguration books, knowing the technicality of it will be better understood by himself than his other half or wielder, settles down and begins to read.

"[Ya think I wanna sit around all day an' read some damn _books_?]" the hollow half whines. "[Ain't happenin' Kingy.]" he stubbornly states, folding his arms across his chest.

"[I'll let you read the monster and combat spell books.]" Ichigo bargains, noticing the slight twitch of curiosity from the more violent blade.

"[None of that _gardening_ crap, or whatever the hell it is you were readin'?]" Zangetsu hesitantly asks, making sure he's not roped into doing some boring ass shit.

"[Nope. Me and Zangetsu-ossan can cover that. But only as long as _you_ read those other books.]" Ichigo replies, gesturing to the Defense Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures books. The hollow half eyes the books, noticing that one of them is belted shut and twitching.

"[Fine. But if it gets boring, I'm done.]" he states, grabbing a book and settling down, grumbling as he begins to read.

Uryu and Orihime have silently watched the whole exchange. Ichigo has told them about Zangetsu's appearances, but this is the first time the two have actually seen the zanpakuto spirits. It is strange to them to see the bleached doppelganger of Ichigo, but they can easily see how he represents Ichigo's hollow side, with his gold on black eyes and air of violence. Uryu feels the slight dig of the claws of primordial fear in facing the instinctual violence that Ichigo possesses while Orihime is hardly worried, knowing that his strongest instinct is to protect the people he cares about. The other blade also stirs mixed feelings, mostly due to his resemblance to their most recent enemy. However, the feeling of danger from him is not nearly so strong as the other half of the blade nor what the real Yhwach made them feel. He gives off an air much like what Ichigo has described: a wise, old teacher, ready to calmly brave the storms of battle.

Snapping from her observation, Orihime summons her Shun Shun Rikka. "[Hey everybody!]" she cheerily greats them.

"[What the hell did you call us out here for, woman? You're not in danger!]" Tsubaki yells, tugging on a strand of her hair, causing her to whine and gaining a growl from Ichigo. Tsubaki never seems happy unless he's being called to battle.

"[Stop that, Tsubaki. It's our job to answer whenever Orihime-sama calls.]" Shun'o scolds the fiery tempered fairy. "[What do you need us for, Orihime-sama?]"

"[Um, I was wondering if you guys could help me like Zangetsu-kun and Zangetsu-san are helping Kurosaki-kun.]" she shyly states, never one to be bossy with her power's spirits.

"[Of course we can, Orihime-sama!]" Shun'o exclaims. "[But you might have to help us in setting up the books to read. We're not that big, you know.]"

"[Of course I'll help. Thank you for helping me.]" Orihime says, smiling at her fairies as she quickly spreads out six books so that the Shun Shun Rikka can get to work. Tsubaki grumbles some, but starts reading with the others.

"[That's just not fair.]" Uryu mutters. _I have to read _all_ of the books _myself_ and they don't even have to read _half_ of them_.

"[Quit complaining, Ishida.]" Ichigo says. "[If you dislike it that much, use the Quincy archive thing to get books out of my head.]" he suggests. "[But if you do, share what you've read, I'm still going slower than Inoue.]"

Uryu ponders his proposition for a while, waging a war between convenience and pride. Convenience saying to take the offer and save the time on reading over two dozen books while pride says to deny it and finish them on his own, showing the strength of not needing _any_ help. He looks to the piles of books.

"[Deal.]" Uryu states, cringing at the smirk Ichigo now wears. _This is no different than them using the spirits of their powers. I'm just using Kurosaki like that. There's no shame in using my powers like this. _Uryu tries to mend his slightly broken pride.

They all lapse back into silence, the only sound to be heard is the turning of pages and quiet breathing. After another hour or so, the silence was broken by the turning of the door knob. All three heads snap up as Zangetsu and the Shun Shun Rikka are dismissed, leaving Zangetsu's books to drop to the floor, with a dull thump. The door opens to reveal Urahara and the teens relax slightly, no longer having to worry about potentially trying to cover up a glimpse of the manifested powers.

"[Hard at work studying, I see.]" Urahara observes. "[Well, how about quick break and I'll explain about these wizards and our mission.]" he offers, receiving nods from the trio. "[Excellent!]" he exclaims, waving his fan before taking a seat on one of the beds.

"[I'll start with the wizards. From what research I've done, they are humans, often with high enough reiatsu to see and interact with spiritual beings. However what they call 'magic' does not stem from reiatsu. Instead, it is a capability to use a higher percentage of their brain. This capability allows them to bend the rules of reality in certain manners, creating effects not unlike what can be achieved using high level reishi manipulation in a spirit world. It is also, apparently, genetic for the most part. Parents with this 'defect' often pass it down to their children while occasionally it will appear in those without a capable parent. The wands they use act as a booster and focus, much like a Quincy cross, for a wizard's power. Some have reached the level where they can cast small spells at will without a wand while it is common occurrence for an untrained child to use small bursts of this power during emotional stress or threatening situations. Any questions so far?]"

"[Yeah. If they're all spiritually aware, why isn't this place swarmed by hollows?]" Ichigo asks.

"[A good question, Kurosaki-san. The answer lies in that outer districts like Europe don't see a lot of spiritual activity. For reasons that I'll simplify, most spiritual activity occurs in areas around the Juureichi, which is currently located in Karakura. Hollows are drawn to the area because it is a breeding ground for spiritual awareness and has the reishi necessary to sustain lesser souls so that plus can be created upon death. The draw of the Juureichi spreads throughout Japan and onto the continent some, but it doesn't reach to Europe. Soul Society only has to worry about the occasional konso in this area, so the staffing here is low key. Occasionally a hollow will show up, but they are usually dealt with quite quickly considering the ones that come here have hardly any power. It's been several centuries since the Juureichi has been located near Europe. It oddly tends to stay in Asia, particularly Japan.]" Urahara explains. They still look mostly confused, but they seem to understand enough.

"[We are here because during our exile, Hirako-san and I stayed in England for a while, London to be exact. During our stay, we had a troublesome run in with some wizards who apparently didn't take to well to us. I believe we were just chosen as a random attack against the non-magic populace, referred to as 'muggles', mostly because our cultural differences drew attention to us. The magical assault was... unexpected. They were able to get in some stunning spells and we quickly found that reiatsu was incapable of breaking their handy work, though we did manage to freak them out and slow them down with the generated pressure. I suppose we could have tried spiking our reiatsu high enough to render them unconscious, but we _were_ on the run and the power required to do so would have alerted Soul Society with no guarantee that unconsciousness would release us from their spells. We were, quite frankly, worried as to what these people would do to us. Any method we had left for trying to escape them at the time would have had much worse consequences. However, we got lucky and Dumbledore-san stepped in, dealing with the wizards who caught us and setting us free. Oddly enough, a hollow picked the moment we were free to show up. We quickly took care of it to keep the local shinigami from finding us and ended up sparking Dumbledore-san's interest. After a nice chat, learning about how we were attacked and dropped some small tidbits to satisfy his curiosity about us. When we were done, we left a way for Dumbledore-san to contact us if he ever desired our help as we both felt indebted to him. He did try to deny our offer, saying that taking care of the hollow was enough, but we wouldn't accept that as we did that for ourselves. Of course, after that I learned all I could about these wizards and have kept tabs on events ever since, mostly as a precaution should they try to come after the afterlife. That debt is why we are now here!]" Urahara cheers, ruining the serious mood of his explanation. "[So Hirako-san and I will be teaching a special class while you three will be students at the school. Our mission will be to protect the students, particularly one Harry Potter, in case of attack.]"

"[Um, right. However there's one thing that's been bothering me for a while now.]" Uryu states and, receiving a nod from Urahara, so he continues. "[How exactly are we expected to perform magic? I mean we're not born wizards nor have we shown any signs of this 'magic'. From the text books I've read, we could maybe fake out some of the classes, but subjects like Transfiguration wouldn't be possible for us to pretend at being wizards.]" Uryu explains. Urahara smiles, _As insightful as ever._

"[Ah, yes that. I believe I did mention that the wands act as a booster for a wizards abilities. We can perform magic, we just barely meet the higher capacity required to use magic due to our extrasensory abilities that come with being spiritually aware and our powers, but only when we have a booster to use. So while we can never perform without a wand, we can still use magic.]" Urahara happily explains. "[However,]" he suddenly turns very serious, "[we are not capable of extended spell casting or high level spell casting. Our capacity is too low for extended periods of use, so make sure to not overwork yourselves. Trying something beyond basic levels will have detrimental effects. You should be okay with the school curriculum, but I would advise against anything that is considered particularly difficult by wizard standards. Do you three understand? I wouldn't want you to get hurt by over working yourselves.]"

Ichigo snorts, _Tell that to the crazy-ass training program you put me through._ Urahara gives him a wry smile. "[I may have pushed you to the edge in training, Kurosaki-san, but it was an edge I knew was temporary, that I knew could be surpassed by you. This is _different_. This is a strongly defined edge, and if you try to surpass it, it won't end well. So I'll ask again, do you three understand the restrictions that you'll have in performing magic?]" They nod their heads, slightly shaken by the dead serious way that Urahara approaches the matter. They know, if Urahara is this serious, it is not something to be lightly dealt with. When the fool's façade is down, it is life or death.

"[Good. Now in particular for our guard duties, we'll need to be on the lookout for hollows and a small group of fighters, consisting of an arrancar, two shinigami, and a fullbringer. The four appear to be in the employ of a dark wizard going by the moniker of Lord Voldemort. The spiritual group's motives are unknown. Voldemort wants to take over the wizarding world and for some reason believes that Harry Potter must die for him to do this. I'm afraid we don't really have any information on the abilities of the spiritual group, so if you encounter them, be cautious. Particular abilities or skills can make up the difference in power.]" The three nod again. "[That's all for now. Just keep going with the flow of things and try not to let any abilities be seen if you can avoid it.]" he instructs the trio, getting up to leave the room. "[Study hard, you three.]"

* * *

Alright, finally finished this chapter. I meant to pick up Harry in this chapter, but all of this filled my page quota in Word for this story. So Harry should arrive in the next chapter. I hope you like my explanation for stuff here. I wanted a semi-equal battle ground for magic vs spiritual powers, so they can't really block each other was my solution. I also didn't want Bleach characters to become over-powered wizards, so instead they're like one step above a squib. Ok, but never great at magic.

* * *

**Please comment/review to tell me how I did.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note**

So there was a rather scathing(to me) complaint to the method of my magic, leaving me compelled to explain it. There are two good reasons it's not reiatsu like in every other version of this cross-over that I've read. 1. If it's just reiatsu manipulation, it leaves Bleach characters way too over-powered and they don't need it. If its something that anyone can do, then the Bleach characters would be able to perform magic on a bigger scale. By that I mean that they could scale up the size of a spell, ex. Lumos becomes like a flood light instead of a flash light. It's the same spell, but because they can put more power into it once they've learned the spell they can make the effect larger. I wanted the wizards to not be completely defenseless against magic wielding Bleach characters, so this method was a no-no and I nerfed Bleach use of magic instead. 2. If wizards are a reiatsu type(ex. Quincy, fullbringer, shinigami, etc.) then the Bleach characters can't learn it. Seriously, you don't see a fullbringer go "Oh, I think I'll use a Quinqcy technique. Go Blut!"Bleach doesn't work that way. This is further driven in by the fact that every race has it's own high speed technique. I'm sure Quincies have seen shunpo enough to know exactly how it works in terms of reiatsu/reishi manipulation, but they never use it. You can argue pride, but the surprise of seeing that used by someone who shouldn't be able to is too valuable to pass up, so they don't use it even though they know how it works because they _can't_ use it. So for those two thought out and good reasons, I removed magic from being a spiritual skill. As for my replacement method, yes I'm aware that we do use all of our brains. I went looking for the percentage so I could use it in Urahara's explanation, but instead cam across an article that completely debunked that myth of only 10% of the brain is used. I still went with that kind of method because I had already picked it because of the Disney movie _The Sorcerer's_ _Apprentice _feat_. _Nicholas Cage and that guy who does Hiccup's voice from _How to Train Your Dragon_(I think). In that movie, magic is a special use of the brain thing that is amplified to work using a special bauble that every wizard in the movie had. I twisted the rules of that to replace their bauble with wands. The rest of this is explained in the previous chapter. I thought it was a clever way to split it up, but I guess some people had issues with it, so I'll say the same thing to them that I said last chapter to those who disliked my shipping: The magic method stays, but you can go find something else to read if you don't like it.

Now that my long winded explanation/rant is done, enjoy the chapter.

* * *

When Remus Lupin was sent to get the older pair of Japanese guests, he didn't expect what he found at all. The room had already devolved into a mess, paperwork strewn across the floor interspersed with many devices that looked like they belonged in a muggle laboratory. The two men sat among the mess, seemingly ignorant of it, as the one in the bucket hat typed away at a holographic keyboard, watching a projected screen of indecipherable symbols and the blonde with odd, slanted bangs kept a cellphone pressed to his ear with his shoulder while taking notes on the paper in his hands and occasional snapping at the caller in Japanese. Lupin wondered for a moment if he'd gotten the wrong room, such a mess and actions didn't exactly leave him thinking that these were the very capable _adults_ that the group had supposedly provided. He opened his mouth to ask when he got beaten to the punch.

"And what may we do for you, …" Urahara trails off, never looking away from the projected screen while Shinji continues to talk into the phone. Lupin is slightly unsure on how to proceed. _Are they even paying attention to me?_

"Ah, yes, um… I'm Remus Lupin, a member of the order. It's a pleasure to meet you two." He starts off, finally gaining their attention as the two turn to look at him, Shinji saying some quick words before hanging up. Upon receiving their attention, Lupin is unsure whether he really wanted it. Something about the pair rubs the wolf the wrong way and he can't really tell what it is. It's like nothing he's ever felt before. Lupin has met plenty of magical creatures and people in his time, but none have ever elicited the same response from the wolf as these two. Just the two of them focusing on him is enough to get the wolf's hackles up, warnings flitting across his senses to be prepared to run, maybe fight if they push it. This feeling unsettles him a great deal because he does not know what it means. Still, he has a job to perform, so he will just keep the wolf's feelings in mind and be prepared. "I was asked to inform you two that we will be having a meeting tonight, so it would be wise to have at least one of you attend so that you may know what is going on and offer what advice and assistance you have. We would also appreciate having one of you go with tonight's guard to pick up Harry, seeing as you two are supposed to be able to deal with these new… associates to You-Know-Who."Lupin informs them, nervously wringing his hands. _The wolf's instincts are really getting to me today_.

Shinji and Urahara look to each other, having a quick, silent conversation before turning back to Lupin.

"I'll go with yer little group to pick up the kid, just let me know when we're leavin'." Shinji says, going back to looking over the notes he's taken during his phone call, done with the conversation. Lupin feels a good bit of the wolf's concern disappear with Shinji's focus going elsewhere. _I suppose he's the more dangerous one, or at least to the wolf anyway_.

"I suppose that means I'm going to the meeting." Urahara sighs, masking his interest in going to a meeting of a secret organization. "I'll just head down when people start arriving. It is held here, isn't it? This is your headquarters after all." Lupin just nods in confirmation. His eyes wandering over the mess of the room again as Urahara goes back to his screen, wondering how so many things that look like electronic muggle devices could be operating in the house.

"How does it all work?" The words slip out of Lupin's mouth before he can think about it.

"How does what work?" Urahara asks. After all, there are many of his inventions and devices in here that he could explain.

"All of these devices." Lupin replies, gesturing to the room. "Electricity shouldn't work here because of the wards and magical saturation, but all of your devices are working and they look like muggle electronics."

Urahara gives him a mysterious smile. "That's because, my dear Lupin-san, these devices do not run on electricity. Or, at least, they do not require electricity to operate, though they can be run on electricity." Lupin looks curious, so Urahara can't resist explaining things just a little further. "Most of these are either my own invention or I've modified them for field use, eliminating the need for electricity. Power bills can be quite expensive, you know, so these little babies save me some good money by not needing to be plugged in or having their batteries replaced." He brags. Lupin politely nods his head, impressed mostly by the fact that Urahara has made a system to operate electronics in magical places where they shouldn't be able to run rather than any money saving they do.

"That sounds like quite the achievement, Mr. …" Lupin trails off, realizing that while he had been told their names, he didn't know which was which. "I'm sorry, are you Urahara or Hirako?"

Urahara chuckles, "Urahara. Kisuke Urahara and my friend here is Shinji Hirako." He explains with a smile. "If you run into the kids, the carrot top is Ichigo Kurosaki, the one with glasses is Uryu Ishida, and the girl is Orihime Inoue."

"Ah, thank you. I'll try to remember that." Lupin says with a nod. "I'll just leave you two to whatever it is you were doing. Oh, before I forget, Mr. Hirako, we'll be leaving by broomstick in about half an hour or so, so if you don't have a broom, you might like to ask the Weasley twins if they could loan you one of theirs." Shinji gives a non-committal grunt, still focused on the papers, and waves a hand to brush it off, to say he'll take care of it. Lupin gives them one last once over before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.

"[You _do_ realize that you don't know how to ride, presumably fly, a broom, Hirako-san?]" Urahara pointedly questions the Squad 5 captain.

"[Can't be much harder than ridin' a motorcycle, can it? Besides, I was plannin' on goin' in my shinigami form, so it ain't gonna be much of a problem if I fall off.]" Shinji says, waving of his concern. "[I'm more worried 'bout all the paper work that's stacking up back home. Momo-chan's usually pretty good about it, but some stuff requires the captain, ya know. Maybe worried 'bout gettin' a broom off of one of the kids.]" He gets up and stretches a bit. "[Suppose I ought to go do that now.]" he sighs before leaving the room to get a broom.

* * *

Harry was alerted to the presence of others in his house by a loud crash and the murmur of voices, so he took his wand and quietly crept to the top of the stairs. His heart was in his throat as he noticed the eight or so figures silhouetted against the streetlight shining through the glass door. It only takes a little while for the figures to reveal themselves as his removal party and confirm that he is, in fact, himself. Reassured and looking forward to leaving, he descends the stairs, stowing his wand in his back pocket.

"Don't put your wand there, boy!" Moody roars. "What if it ignited? Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know?"

"Who d'you know who's lost a buttock?" the violet haired witch asks Moody interestedly.

"I'd certainly like to see that." A man with straight, shoulder-length, blonde hair and slanted bangs comments. He is dressed in flowing black and white robes with a white necktie tucked into the v of his collar and a sword is sheathed at his left hip. He wore a lazy grin that reminded Harry of the Cheshire cat. "Ain't never heard of, much less seen, a person whose lost half their ass. Guess they must be pretty _half-assed_." He snickers at his own joke, getting a few grins from the gathered wizards, including Harry.

"Never you mind, you just keep your wand out of your back pocket!" Moody growls. "Elementary wand safety, nobody bothers about it anymore…" He stumps off toward the kitchen. "And I saw that," he irritably adds, having caught the woman rolling her eyes and the blonde sticking out his tongue, revealing a silver piercing in it.

After fretting about the Dursleys' presence and when and to where they'd be leaving, Harry was introduced to his guard for the evening. Harry decided during the introductions that he rather liked the blonde, Shinji Hirako, mostly because of the fact that unlike the others he didn't particularly stare at him, though he had liked his bit of humor earlier as well. After getting a bit more information on their travel plans and helping Moody clean his eye, Harry went upstairs and packed his things with the help of the purple, now pink, haired Tonks. They returned downstairs, got a Disillusionment Charm set on Harry, and moved out to the garden in preparation for their departure.

"Clear night," Moody grunted, his magical eye scanning the sky while Shinji seemed to be looking the skies over himself. "Could've done with a bit more cloud cover. Right, you," Moody barked at Harry, "we're going to be flying in close formation. Tonks'll be right in front of you, keep close on her tail. Lupin'll be covering you from below. Hirako will be on your left. I'm going behind you. The rest'll be circling us. We don't break rank for anything, got me? If–"

"If ya see any big monsters with masks, possibly standin' on the air, keep goin'. I'll take care of 'em." Shinji cuts in. Moody grumbles a bit at the interruption before continuing his own speech.

"Right, do that. Now, if one of us is killed–"

"Is that likely?" Harry asks, worry lacing his tone, but Moody ignores him.

"–the others keep flying, don't stop, don't break ranks. If they take out all of us and you survive, Harry, the rear guard are standing by to take over; keep flying east and they'll join you."

"Stop being so cheerful, Mad-Eye, he'll think we're not taking this seriously," Tonks says sarcastically, strapping Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage to a harness on her broom.

"I'm just telling the boy the plan," Moody growls. "Our job's to deliver him safely to headquarters and if we die in the attempt–"

"No one's going to die," Kingsley Shacklebolt assures in his deep, calm voice.

"At least, no one on our side." Shinji adds, his smirk now feeling very menacing as his hand rests on the handle of his sword. Harry was just slightly reconsidering liking the blonde.

"Mount your brooms, that's the first signal!" Lupin said sharply, pointing to the sky where a shower of bright red sparks glitters among the stars. Harry follows his instructions, swinging his right leg over his Firebolt, feeling the slight vibrations of the broom as he grips the hilt, seemingly reflecting his own eagerness to take to the skies.

"Second signal, let's go!" Lupin shouts as green sparks replace the red ones like fireworks in the sky.

The wizards push off the ground, brooms taking them soaring into the sky. Harry can't help but whoop in delight at the wind rushing around him, at escaping the Dursleys, at the freedom of the sky. His problems seemed to fade away as they gained altitude, just like the ground and city lights below. They turned and altered their course according to Moody's instructions, when, as they were leaving the town of Little Whinging, Surrey, an unearthly howl sounded across the sky. All the wizards started in surprise as a group of what could only be called monsters seemed to materialize in the air before them.

"Hold this." Shinji orders, thrusting something wooden into Harry's left hand, giving him no time to argue.

Harry looks down and feels his stomach drop as he realizes that the object he's been given is Shinji's broom, minus its rider. Before he has much time to panic though, a chorus of the previous howls sounds again, this time with a clear note of pain. Harry's head snaps up just in time to witness all of the monsters' faces erupt in sprays of blood, barely seeing the back of a figure in a long white cloak crouched on the other side of them before it disappears. The monsters start to fall out of the sky, parts of their bodies already decayed into dust.

"Thanks, kid." Harry hears from his left, starting as the spare broom is tugged from his shock-numbed grip. He snaps his head to his left, only to see Shinji calmly settling on his broom while adjusting his sword and once more flying beside him. _What in the name of Merlin just happened? I know he said he'd handle the monsters, but _how_ exactly did he _do_ that?_ Harry's thoughts were in a daze, trying to figure out how Shinji had not fallen to his death when he left his broom and how he'd gotten to the other side of the monsters and back so quickly. He missed the quick scolding from Moody about Shinji's unexpected and unannounced actions, how the captain could have been hit by a stray spell. Harry was finally snapped out of his thoughts when Shinji had to point out another change in direction to him.

After almost being forced to loop back, Harry was quite glad to get out of the cold of the upper atmosphere that had slowly been numbing his entire being. After Moody showed him the slip of paper, the group quickly slips into number twelve Grimmauld Place. Harry's first impression of the place was that it was very much reminiscent of a haunted house with all the dust, cobwebs, and simply _old_ appearance of the house. Mrs. Weasley comes scurrying out of a door at the far end of the hall, quick to welcome him and shower him with her motherly affections. She informs the others of a meeting which the guard all heads off to, Mrs. Weasley keeping him from following, saying it's for members only. She ushers him away, taking him to a room upstairs before hurrying away to rejoin the meeting.

Upon reuniting with Ron and Hermione, Harry was quite happy. However, as he got few and rather poor, in his opinion, answers to his questions, he couldn't help but lose his temper over his self-perceived mistreatment. He knew it was wrong to unload on his friends like that, but after being kept in the dark so long, he had expected answers and he wasn't getting them. His temper was only starting to lessen as Hermione and Ron explained their lack of ability to gather information when the twins Apparated in with a loud crack. They teased Harry a bit about his lost temper before reprimanding him for messing with their sound reception on their Extendable Ears.

"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," said Fred in response to Ron's warning.

"I suppose we're lucky that Hirako fellow didn't decide to turn us over to mum." said George.

"Right you are, brother of mine. Seems like he'll be a decent teacher." Fred replies with a grin.

"Especially considering he actually gave us advice through the Ears on hiding them."

Before Harry can question the twins on Shinji being a _teacher_ of all things, because he cannot imagine him acting like a teacher, the door to the rooms opens, revealing several people. Harry easily recognizes Ron's sister, Ginny, but the other three are a mystery to him. There is a bespectacled boy with raven hair, pale skin, and sharp, deep blue eyes. His hair is chin length and the bangs are down on the right side while on the left they tuck behind his ear. The boy was about as tall as Ron, though unlike Ron instead of being gangly, he was slender and fit his height. He also held a slight air of nobility, or maybe he was just stuck up, Harry wasn't really sure, but the way he carried himself held some sort of air that reminded Harry of the way Malfoy would strut around. Next to him was a rather busty girl with auburn hair, pale skin, though not as pale as the boy, and kind, silvery eyes. Her bangs framed her face while the rest of her hair went down her back, all the way to her waist if the small swish he noticed when she moved was any indication. She was a little bit shorter than Hermione, though that was a rather absent minded observation as it was hard to get over the _curves_ that the girl possessed. Harry likely would have looked a little longer, he _was_ a teenage boy, sue him for having hormones, but the chill that went down his spine after about five seconds had him noticing the final new comer. He is slightly taller than the other boy, with peachy skin, and while the other was slender, he is lean, part of a well-defined chest visible above his shirt collar. The most obvious thing about him though is his bright orange hair, spiking out and looking as if it has never met a comb before. Taking his focus off of the bright hair, Harry notices that this boy is scowling at him, brown eyes filled with… anger, maybe jealousy, Harry can't quite tell, but he's fairly certain that it's because he was staring at the girl and that if he had stared much longer there would have been ensuing violence. There is simply something about his punkish looks and the way he holds himself that screams out 'Mess with me and you'll be in pain.'

"Oh hello, Harry!" Ginny brightly greeted him. "I thought I heard your voice."

The orange haired boy snorted. "You'd have to be deaf not to hear that yelling." He grumbles, receiving a small frown from the girl and an elbow to the side from the other boy. "What? I'm just saying. He _was_ pretty damn loud."

"Be that as it may, Kurosaki, you still shouldn't be so rude about it." The boy with glasses reprimands him, pushing his glasses up and seeming very arrogant to Harry.

"Piss off, Ishida." Kurosaki replies, glaring at the now named Ishida.

The girl just smiles at Harry, not at all concerned with the two boys bickering and giving each other death glares over her head. "I'm Orihime Inoue, hajimemashite." She happily tells Harry with a little bow.

"Ha-jee-may-what?" Harry asks, completely confused by the Japanese greeting.

"It serves along the same lines as 'nice to meet you' in Japanese." The bespectacled boy explains with a sigh. "I'm Uryu Ishida and this moron is–"

"Hey! I can introduce myself, thank you very much." The orange haired boy loudly cuts in. "Ichigo Kurosaki, nice to meet'cha."

Harry blinks a bit in surprise. He had thought that Orihime and Ichigo were related with their similar hair colors and the way Ichigo had glared him down for staring at her. He absently notices that the two boys have taken to bickering again.

"Anyways, it's no go with the Extendable Ears," Ginny says, turning to Fred and George, "she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."

"Are they always like that?" Harry whispers to Ron as Ginny explains how she checked the door.

"Dunno, mate. They got here this morning and have been holed away studying almost all day." Ron whispers back. "Something 'bout having a completely different schooling in Japan then what we got at Hogwarts. Though there was something a little od–"

"–finding out what old Snape's been up to."

Harry's attention is immediately dragged away from Ron at the mention of his most hated teacher. "Snape?" Harry quickly questions. "Is he here?"

"Yeah" said George, closing the door and settling on the beds with Fred, Ginny, and Orihime while Ichigo and Uryu lean against the wall beside the door. "Giving a report. Top secret."

"Git." Said Fred idly.

"He's on our side now." Hermione admonishes him.

Ron snorts. "Doesn't stop him from being a git."

"Mmm. People don't stop being asses just because they're your ally." Ichigo throws in his two-cents, eyes flickering over to Uryu who just glares back. Harry really isn't sure what to make of the two's seemingly constant bickering. They insult each other, but neither seems truly upset about it, just annoyed and trying to one-up the other.

"Bill doesn't like him either." Ginny says with a sense of settling the matter. Harry's curiosity truly took over any remaining resentment at being kept in the dark as he fished for more information on what he'd missed. He learned about how Ron's older brothers were helping out, Bill returning home and helping Fleur with her 'Eeenglish' while Charlie was gaining foreign support from Romania.

"Is that how you three got brought in?" Harry asks, turning to the Japanese students.

"Nah. Geta-Boushi and Shinji owed the old man" "Dumbledore" "yeah him, a favor or something and we got dragged along." Ichigo explains with Uryu supplying Dumbledore's name. "So we get to transfer to your school for the year."

"Geta-Boushi?" Harry asks, wondering what kind of name that is.

"It's a nickname that Kurosaki gave Urahara-san to make fun of his hat and shoes." Uryu explains as Orihime nods along. Seeing a slightly confused look from the others he further explains, "Geta are a special type of wooden sandals while boushi means hat in Japanese." Looks of understanding spread across the Weasleys' and Hermione's faces while Harry still remains somewhat confused. "Don't worry, you'll get it when you meet Urahara-san." Uryu says with a sigh.

The Weasleys then continue to explain Percy's defecting to the Ministry's side and the trashing of his name that the _Daily_ _Prophet_ has been doing lately. Both sets of news were met with anger and negativity, even from the Japanese group who didn't understand the implications too much. When they got back to the news of Harry's hearing, he looked for a way to change the subject, but ended up not having to worry about it as the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs was heard. The twins gave a sharp tug on their Extendable Ears before Apparating away with a loud crack. Moments later, Mrs. Weasley comes into the room.

"The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now, everyone's dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?" she asks.

"Cookshanks," Ginny lies, shifting the blame away from herself. "He loves playing with them."

"Oh," Mrs. Weasley says, "I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please…" she requests as she proceeds to leave, Ginny grimacing as she follows her along with Ichigo, Uryu, and Orihime.

After the others have left, Ron and Hermione try to apologize again for keeping Harry in the dark. At this point he's just feeling guilty about how he reacted, justified as it felt at the time, and is quick to change the subject, getting the two arguing about Hermione's S.P.E.W. When they've exited to the landing, they see the meeting's members still gathered in the hallway, so they stop to try and eavesdrop on the conversation below them. Fred and George try to get an Extendable Ear into the conversation, but end up being too late as the group leaves, so all of them continue down the stairs.

"We're eating in the kitchen," Mrs. Weasley whispers, meeting them at the base of the stairs. "Harry, dear, if you'll just tiptoe across the hall, it's through this door here–"

_CRASH_

"_Tonks_!" Mrs. Weasley cries in exasperation.

"I'm sorry!" Tonks wails from her position on the floor. "It's that stupid umbrella stand, that's the second time I've tripped over–"

The rest is cut off by an earsplitting screech as the curtains Harry had passed earlier flew open, revealing not a door, as he had expected, but a life-sized portrait that he mistook for a window for a moment. The portrait was of an old woman with yellowing skin in a black cap, all displayed in a very realistic yet horrifying and unpleasant manner. Her shrieks seemed to wake all the other portraits so that they added to the cacophony of screams that echoed through the hall, reaching such a volume that Harry clapped his hands over his ears. The foreigners came dashing out of the kitchen, looking ready to fight something. Lupin and Mrs. Weasley hurried forward to try and tug the curtains closed, but to no effect except to cause the depicted woman to screech even louder.

"_Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers–_"

"[Damn. That thing's screechin' is worse than a herd o' Gillians]" Shinji comments, hands having already moved to cover his ears like the others.

Mrs. Weasley gives up on the curtains and hurries down the halls, stunning the other portraits. Ichigo quickly moves forward, Uryu at his side, and they take her place trying to close the curtains, allowing Lupin to go and assist Mrs. Weasley in quieting the other portraits. The pair seem to have a bit more luck in trying to close the curtain as they get it to move halfway across the painting. Then a man with long black hair came charging out of a room across from Harry.

"Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!" he roars, joining Ichigo and Uryu on the curtain. The painting's face blanches as it notices the newcomer.

"_Yoooou!_" she howls, glaring at the man before her. "_Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!_"

"I said– shut– UP!" the man roars, and with a mighty heave, the three force the curtain closed again. None but the sharp eyes of Kisuke and Shinji catching the faint glimmers of energy running under the two boys' skin as they ensure that it will be the final tug on the curtain.

The man turns to Harry, sweeping his hair out of his face as he pants. "Hello, Harry," Sirius says grimly, "I see you've met my mother."

"I don't normally insult girls and women, but your mom's a bitch." Ichigo says to Sirius, crossing his arms over his chest, defying anyone to say otherwise. Sirius just lets out a bark of laughter.

"I won't disagree with you there,… ah, I'm afraid we haven't been introduced yet. I'm Sirius Black, Harry's godfather." He says, offering a hand to Ichigo and Uryu.

"Ichigo Kurosaki." "Uryu Ishida." They both introduce themselves, taking his hand in turn.

"So that was your–?" Harry asks.

"My dear old mum, yeah," Sirius replies. "We've been trying to get her down for a month but we think she put a Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of the canvas. Let's get downstairs, quick, before they all wake up again."

"Have you thought about possibly burning or destroying it? Maybe painting a muzzle or gag on her?" Urahara questions him, curious glint in his eye. _I wonder what would have the best effect. Can the paintings be manipulated by added art?_

"It's kind of hard to destroy magic paintings, though you might have something with the add-ons." Sirius replies.

"What's a portrait of your mother doing here?" Harry asks his godfather, bewildered as they move down the hallway.

"Hasn't anyone told you?" Sirius asks a little incredulously. "This was my parents' house. But I'm the last Black left, so it's mine now. I offered it to Dumbledore for headquarters– about the only useful thing I've been able to do." He bitterly finishes. Harry feels that he can relate to Sirius's plight of being left out considering his previous interment with the Dursleys this summer, though he was expecting a warmer welcome from his godfather than this, but Harry was mostly just happy to see everyone and be a part of things again.

* * *

Dumbledore sat in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts, considering his decision to call in Shinji Hirako and Kisuke Urahara, along with the students they had decided to bring with them. He had never been sure that he'd ever cash in on the debt they perceived themselves to owe him, but with the recent additions to Voldemort's forces, he had felt that the mysterious duo could help.

However, that was the problem: they were mysteries. He had never gotten much out of them on who, possibly _what_, they are, though he could maybe pull some conclusions from what he knew.

He sighed, the duo had been tight lipped and calculating, only telling him bare bone facts and vague answers that were very unsatisfactory. Not that Dumbledore hadn't done much the same in return, but he felt that they left out much more than him. Not to mention that any further attempts at researching what they did mention turned up nothing while he was quite sure that they would have found all that they wanted to know when they searched for more on wizards. After all, both were highly intelligent men, made even more dangerous by how easily they covered it up so that only those who look might notice their façade.

_They might very well be as old as, if not older, than me_, he muses to himself, recalling how they haven't aged a day in thirty years. There are spells and potions to help maintain a youthful look, but considering that they aren't wizards of a European convention, he doubts they use such things. Adding to that feeling is what Severus reported about their minds. Not only Shinji and Kisuke, but the two boys, Ichigo Kurosaki and Uryu Ishida, have minds that break the standard human convention, leaving little doubt on them not being human. Truthfully, this worries Dumbledore a bit, to not know what he is unleashing into his school. It is not helped by the fact that Snape found violent secondary personalities in Shinji, Kisuke, and the Kurosaki boy. True, they seemed to have these personalities under control, but if they should lose control of them… well, things wouldn't be good, especially with a Ministry representative having forced their way in to teach the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Furthermore, he had no inkling what might reside in the consciousness of the girl, Orihime Inoue. She had struck him as a rather kind and gentle individual when he had a quick meeting with her to tell her the secret of Grimmauld Place.

That was another thing: how did they bypass the Fidelius Charm? If they could do it, there was a chance their enemies could do it. When he had confronted Kisuke about it, the shopkeeper had told him not to worry, the path they had used to get her there had to be opened from within the barrier to allow a person access. Unless the enemy got in on their own, there was no way for that method to bring a person to their headquarters. Dumbledore honestly hoped he was right, because if not, well, that would be quite the problem. Although, Dumbledore was quite curious about this 'garganta' as Urahara had called it. It was hard to say, but it seemed to work like the old portals that were used before Apparation was discovered, but somehow more advanced, considering it was portable.

Then there was the matter of the Japanese's abilities and skills. It had been obvious when he first met them and they took down the monster, Shinji had called it a 'hollow' and Dumbledore was fairly certain it referred to the hole in the creature's chest, that they had extensive combat training. He figured they could give dragon wranglers and aurors a run for their money in skill with dealing with monsters. They had confessed to Moody to have plenty of battlefield experience and, according to Moody, they acted like military commanders when looking at the data they had on Voldemort's new help. Shinji had also claimed Urahara to be one of the smartest people around, so that of course elicited some caution, just on principle. The Ishida boy also garnered caution for his intellect as he somehow held a thousand years' worth of techniques of his people, not to mention that he was their leader-to-be, if not already leading, these 'Quincy' people. The Kurosaki boy was supposedly a power house, though probably unrefined as he seemed to easily defer leadership to, what Dumbledore assumed to be, the older pair. There was also the statement that 'really piss him off and you'll be lucky to make it out alive' that concerned him. It seemed to be implied that such a thing required a rather specific trigger or a lot of effort, but the 'lucky to make it out alive' was a rather pressing point. He'd have to get some clarification on that for the safety of the students, just in case. Then there was what Moody told him of Shinji's performance during Harry's retrieval. He had supposedly taken out the monsters, whose descriptions had fit somewhat with his own previous experience with a hollow, in less than a second, splitting all of their faces without being seen at all by the others, except for a brief glimpse of his back form where he _stood on the sky_ as the creatures fell from the sky. Dumbledore supposed that could be excused by this 'inner hollow' Snape had reported on, if the creatures who had also stood on the sky were, indeed, hollows. In fact, the 'inner hollow' might explain Lupin's report on his inner wolf being highly wary of the man, though it didn't explain its caution towards Kisuke. Those four seemed to be the 'battle force' while the Inoue girl provided support with high level healing skills. She hadn't struck him as a fighter, but those who know best how to heal know the inverse, how best to hurt. So he basically had reason to be cautious of the whole group.

He also knew that their powers and magic were derived from their souls and life force. How exactly, they wouldn't say, only that it was not something that Dumbledore could learn. This in itself raised many questions, but it did fit with the more spiritual culture of the people of Asia.

Dumbledore sighed once more. Trying to puzzle the Japanese group out was hard, especially since he seemed to be missing so many pieces. He could ask questions of them, but they guarded their words. He was certain he could get the answers out of them, but he was as equally certain that he'd only get them if he asked the right questions. _I suppose I should start coming up with questions_.

* * *

And now Harry has finally arrived. I've had that scene with Shinji and the broom in my head since chapter 2. You also get some Dumbledore and his musings on his requested help. And while I appreciate critiques as a means to help me improve, I ask that you also include what you think went right because they're more effective that way. A what went right & wrong says a lot more and doesn't make me feel like my story is stupid or makes me question why that person's following when they don't seem to like it. Anywho, that's enough ranting out of me.

**Please comment/review to tell me how I did.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note**

Not much to say here. Ummm, yeah, so enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Harry and the others proceeded to the gloomy kitchen, lit mostly by a single fire with chairs crammed into it around a long wooden table in the middle for the meeting. Goblets and empty wine bottles littered the table along with rolls of parchment. Mr. Weasley and the eldest Weasley child, Bill, were conversing with their heads together at the end of the table. Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat to get their attention, causing Mr. Weasley to jump and come forward to warmly great Harry.

"Harry! Good to see you!" Mr. Weasley greets him shaking his hand vigorously.

"Journey alright, Harry?" Bill calls as he tries to roll up and collect a dozen scrolls at once. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland, then?"

"He tried." Tonks tells him, going over to help him.

"Is that where we were goin'?" Shinji asks. "I knew we were takin' a helluva long way, but Greenland?" He just shakes his head at the ridiculous detouring Moody attempted. "Remind me to never take directions from him." He receives muffled sniggers from most of the room's occupants, causing his grin to widen.

"Oh no– _sorry_–" Tonks apologizes as she has just knocked a candle onto the last piece of parchment, setting it ablaze.

"Here, dear." Mrs. Weasley says in a tone that indicates that it most certainly is not the first time she's had to clean up after Tonks as she fixes the damage with a wave of her wand. Harry thought the contents of the parchment looked like a blue print or layout for a building, but Mrs. Weasley caught him staring and quickly snatched it away, placing it in Bill's already full arms. "This sort of thing ought to be cleared away promptly at the end of meetings." she snaps, sweeping off to an ancient cabinet to begin unloading dinner plates.

After a brief introduction to Mundungus Fletcher, which included a very smelly pipe and a small scolding for using said pipe from Mrs. Weasley, preparations for dinner got underway. Harry was excluded from helping per Mrs. Weasley's orders while the others helped set the table and retrieve food from the pantry. Harry found out while he was waiting that Sirius was hardly having a better time himself this summer as he was cooped up in Grimmauld Place when he'd much rather be out there in the world, doing his part for the Order.

"Fred– George– NO JUST CARRY THEM!" shrieked Mrs. Weasley, catching Sirius, Harry, and Mundungus's attention, just in time for them to dive out of the way.

Fred and George had enchanted a cauldron of stew, flagon of butterbeer, and a wooden breadboard with a knife, to come hurtling towards the table, and them. When the cauldron hit the table and skidded along half the table, leaving behind a burned, blackened line on the table, before Ichigo swooped in with pot holders, easily lifting it from the table in a swirling motion before setting it back down almost exactly where he had picked it up from, having effectively destroyed its forward momentum. The flagon of butterbeer fell towards the floor only to get snatched by the handle by Uryu, quickly up righting it so that it barely spilled its contents. The breadboard and knife were less fortunate, as the knife slipped off the board and, with no one to save it, landed in the table, quivering ominously where Sirius's hand had been but moments before.

"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" Mrs. Weasley screamed. "THERE WAS NO NEED– I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS– JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY TINY LITTLE THING!"

"We were just trying to save a bit of time!" Fred justifies their actions as he hurries forward to wrench the knife free of the table. "Sorry Sirius, mate– didn't mean to–"

Harry, Sirius, and Shinji, who had been standing back from the preparations, were all laughing at Mundungus who had toppled backwards off his chair in his haste to avoid the flying objects. Crookshanks had fled Sirius's lap with a hiss, taking up a residence under the dresser, yellow eyes glowing from the dark beneath it.

"Boys," Mr. Weasley begins to lecture as he flicks his wand to clean up the spilled contents of the cauldron and flagon, "your mother's right, you're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now you've come of age–"

"–none of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!" Mrs. Weasley scolded the twins, angrily placing another flagon of butterbeer on the table, slopping most of its contents out onto the table from the force with which she placed it. "Bill didn't feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn't Charm everything he met! Percy–" She suddenly stopped, remembering Percy's disownment of them, and turned to Mr. Weasley with a frightened expression as his expression turned cold and stony.

"Well, let's begin this delicious looking meal!" Urahara quickly announces, trying to diffuse the sudden tension.

"It does look wonderful, Molly." Lupin compliments, ladling out stew for her and passing it across the table.

The room is silent, except for the sounds of chairs moving to accommodate people and the clinks and clatters of plates and cutlery as food is served. However, soon enough conversations start. Mrs. Weasley goes over with Sirius how she'd like to proceed with the cleaning, only getting short, sarcastic replies, though if she realized that nature of them, she didn't comment upon it. Opposite of Harry, Tonks was entertaining Ginny, Hermione, and Orihime by changing her nose between mouthfuls. He could tell by the way that Ginny and Hermione started requesting favorites after a while that it was a regular mealtime show. Orihime was quick to join them, even coming up with noses Tonks hadn't displayed for her to try. Ichigo and Uryu also watched the show, but they remained silent, though Harry could see their lips twitching into smiles every now and then from some of the more ridiculous looking noses. Mr. Weasley, Bill, and Lupin were intensely discussing where the goblins might side while Urahara listened in, adding his own thoughts.

"I highly doubt you'll have to deal with a majority of them siding with this Voldemort fellow. They seem to focus on the long term rather than the short and combined with what seems to be rather amazing grudge holding skills, I doubt they'll actually side with anyone as a race considering that both sides have horrid track records against them. Your people have, as a general populace, suppressed and looked down on them, leaving them with no feeling of affection or loyalty, along with a rather blatant ignorance of their culture with no attempts to placate them. Voldemort-san is, in some ways, worse with a very open display of a superiority complex that won't spare them and a ruthless side that views others as disposable pawns rather than valued people. As with any group you'll see a few that will pick a side, but I doubt the majority will do much of anything regarding your war. They'll just let it play out as long as they aren't particularly threatened as a race." Urahara concludes, leaving the others rather surprised, but also agreeing with his thought process.

"That sounds about right." Bill says. "Though it would be good if we could get them to our side. I'm surprised you could figure all of that out with little more than a basic insight though."

Urahara pulls his fan out of nowhere, lazily waving it in front of his face. "Maa, I've been tangled in some pretty twisted politics before back home. It's just a matter of knowing how to use the information you have and reading between the lines–"

A gale of laughter drowns out the rest of that conversation. Fred, George, Ron, Shinji, and Mundungus are rolling around in their seats, laughter shaking their sides as Mundungus tells them a story of him selling a man his own toads back to him for twice their original price. Mrs. Weasley demands Mundungus to stop with such stories of shady business, giving a scathing reply to his choice of morals. When she shoots a glare at Sirius, he is quick to explain to Harry how she doesn't approve of Mundungus, even if he is useful to the Order, and that she especially doesn't like having him stay for dinner, even more so after his botched job defending Harry.

After several servings of desert, everyone lulls into silence, too full to think of doing much more than making the journey to their bed. Mr. Weasley is relaxed, leaning back in his chair, Tonks was yawning, done with the dinner show, Ginny had lured Crookshanks out and was tossing butterbeer corks for him to chase, and Orihime had fallen asleep at the table, using Ichigo's shoulder for a pillow. Ichigo had wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her from falling out of her seat, but he seemed to be drifting on the edge of sleep and consciousness himself, eyes heavy and head lolling.

"Nearly time for bed, I think." Mrs. Weasley states with a yawn.

"Not just yet, Molly." Sirius says, pushing away his empty plate as he turns to look at Harry. "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."

The atmosphere changed from relaxed and calm to alert and tense with a speed Harry could only relate to the arrival of dementors. A shiver passed around the wizards at Voldemort's name. Orihime slept on while Ichigo's head snapped up, eyes suddenly sharp and wide awake, and scanned the room with his senses. Finding nothing out of the ordinary besides the tensed actions of the wizards, he went back to his semi-dormant state, sure that Uryu would poke him in the ribs or something if he really needed to be awake and aware for whatever topic stirred the wizards up. He didn't particularly care at the moment about any high-horse riding Uryu would do later whenever this subject came up later, he was too tired and the previous atmosphere had lulled him much too close to sleep to really care anymore.

"I did!" Harry indignantly replied. "I asked Ron and Hermione but they said we're not allowed in the Order, so–"

"And they're quite right," Mrs. Weasley snaps, obviously disliking the direction the conversation is taking. She is now sitting bolt upright, fists clenched, not a sigh of her previous drowsiness present.

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" Sirius asks her. "Harry's been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. He's got the right to know what's been happen–"

"Hang on!" George loudly interrupts.

"How come Harry gets his questions answered?" Fred angrily asks.

"_We've_ been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single stinking thing." George continues bitterly.

" '_You're too young, you're not in the Order._' " Fred says in a high voice, mimicking his mother. "Harry's not even of age."

"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's doing." Sirius calmly replies. "That's your parents' decision. Harry, on the other hand–"

"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!" Mrs. Weasley sharply cuts in. her normally motherly air turned very dangerous.

The brewing violence in the air causes Ichigo to wake once more and seeing the further increased tensions, he decides to pay attention for a while. He silently watches, as do the rest of the awake foreigners, as Mrs. Weasley and Sirius argue about whether or not Harry should be told. Their voices raising higher and higher in volume as they argue. When Mrs. Weasley looks to her husband for back up, he carefully lets her down by acknowledging that it is somewhat expected that Harry be told things. Lupin also expresses the thought that Harry should be given a general picture. Realizing that she is being out numbered, Mrs. Weasley bitterly concedes defeat.

"I think ya should let him decide." Shinji idly states, looking rather bored with the whole affair. " 'Ccording to you guys, he's handled more'n his share of trouble, so I'd think he knows what he can handle, ne? 'Sides, it ain't like you can't decide to not answer a question or when ta stop."

Harry was quick to leap on the chance. "I want to know what's been going on." Harry truly appreciated that Mrs. Weasley considered him to practically be one of her sons, but he didn't want to be completely treated like a child.

"Very well." Mrs. Weasley sniffs, her voice cracking. "Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ichigo, Uryu, Orihime, I want you out of this kitchen now."

Her children instantly rebelled.

"We're of age!" the twins roar.

"If Harry's allowed, why can't I?" Ron shouts.

"Mum, I _want_ to!" Ginny wails.

"NO!" Mrs. Weasley bellows, standing up, eyes lit with anger. "I absolutely forbid–"

"Molly, you can't stop Fred and George." Mr. Weasley wearily sighs. "They _are_ of age–"

"They're still in school–"

"But they're legally adults now." Mr. Weasley continues in his tired voice. He loves his wife, he does, but this argument had gone on too long and he'd rather like to be done for the night.

"I… oh, all right then, Fred and George can stay, but Ron–"

"Harry'll tell me and Hermione everything you say anyway!" Ron vehemently states. "Won't… won't you?" he asks, now feeling uncertain as he remembers Harry's previous anger, looking to Harry for reassurance. Harry briefly considers leaving them in the dark,_ see how you like it_, but loses the impulse open connecting eyes with his friend.

" 'Course I will." He confidently states, causing Ron and Hermione to beam. They're glad to know that Harry's forgiven them. _Grudges with him have never gone well,_ Ron thinks, remembering last year and the whole debacle with Harry getting into the Tri-Wizard tournament.

The sound of a chair scraping the ground draws attention to Ichigo as he carefully eases himself out of the chair, avoiding waking the sleeping girl leaning against his shoulder. He then scoops her up bridal-style with a small grunt and she curls into his chest, hands gripping his shirt. " 'm going to bed. I'll take Inoue up too. You can tell me 'bout it tomorrow." He announces with a yawn, turning with the girl in his arms and heading for the exit.

"Before we can get into further arguments, I'd like to say I'll be staying." Uryu calmly states, pushing his glasses up his nose. Mrs. Weasley swells up, ready to shoot him down, but he continues. "I recognize that you are an adult, and thus in charge, Weasley-san, however I am _not_ one of your children and I doubt anything too horrifying will be discussed tonight." Mrs. Weasley still looks ready to shout, but she turns to Urahara and Shinji to force Uryu to leave.

Shinji just shrugs. "Four-eyes can handle himself."

"I don't really see a reason to stop Ishida-san from listening when others his age are being allowed." Urahara reasons with her. Mrs. Weasley just bristles at their lax attitude.

"Fine!" she shouts. "Fine! Ginny– BED!" Ginny is dragged out by Mrs. Weasley, Ichigo quietly lumbering behind them, Orihime still fast asleep through the shouting. Ginny refused to go quietly and her loud rebellion was only added to as she woke the portraits in the hallway. Lupin rushed off to help with the portraits and was left in a bit of disbelief that Orihime was somehow sleeping through the loud din. Urahara comments that it's hardly a surprise since she was approaching 24 hours of wakefulness. Once Lupin is settled at the table again, Sirius allows Harry to begin his questioning.

"Okay, Harry… what do you want to know?"

Given the clear to finally ask and, hopefully, get some answers, Harry asks the one that has been bothering him the most this past month. "Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to watch Muggle news," he says, ignoring the shudders of the wizards in the room, "and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything…"

"That's because there haven't been any suspicious deaths yet," Sirius answers, "not as far as we know anyway… And we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do anyway." Lupin adds.

"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asks, knowing that Voldemort has no problem killing people. Heck, Voldemort murdered multiple times in the past year alone.

"Strategy." Urahara and Shinji answer at the same time like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Sirius and Lupin nod in agreement with their statement. Harry just looks at them in confusion.

Urahara sighs before he begins explaining. "Unless I'm mistaken, Voldemort-san wanted a private resurrection, but you escaped and were able to warn others of his revival. Now the Order of the Phoenix can try to rally others and make them aware of his presence. However, he gained some luck in the form of your Ministry trying to deny his revival. Since they aren't looking for him, he has no reason to reveal himself with flashy actions. Instead he can operate under the radar and undermine them before they even realize he's there. Then when he's good and ready, he can come prancing out of the shadows to turn the world on its head." He sighs again, shaking his head. "Your Ministry is even stupid enough to try to remove the personnel who know the truth and discredit them instead. They're trampling his enemies' efforts and he doesn't even have to lift a finger."

"Damn. This is like Aizen all over again." Shinji mutters under his breath.

"Who's Aizen?" Ron asks, having heard Shinji's comment. Shinji blinks and realizes that all the wizards are now staring at him curiously.

"He was an asshole who decided he ought ta be god, so he went and did a buncha nasty experiments so he could build a powerful army, got a bunch of us on death row for being monstrous victims while Kisuke and the others who tried ta help us got the blame and sentences of exile. Wiped out nearly half of our upper ranks in one move and nobody left was any the wiser that it was all his plan." Shinji bitterly says, leaving out a lot of details and making it obvious that they weren't going to get them, at least not tonight. "Bastard was a master strategist and he hid himself in plain sight for years before he revealed his hand. I don' think this Voldemort fellow has the patience to wait it out like Aizen, but he ain't gonna move rashly either."

Harry listened to both men's explanations, though he didn't pay as much attention to Shinji's as he was trying to puzzle out Urahara's explanation. "Wait, the Ministry is denying that Voldemort's back?" he asks with a note of incredulity and worry. "Why would they do something like that?"

"You saw Cornelius Fudge after You-Know-Who came back, Harry." Tonks says. "Well, he hasn't shifted his position at all. He's absolutely refusing to believe it's happened."

"But why?" Harry asks desperately. "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore–"

"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem." Mr. Weasley says with a wry smile. "_Dumbledore_."

"Fudge is frightened of him, you see." Tonks sadly states.

"Frightened of Dumbledore?" Harry incredulously repeats.

"Frightened of what he's up to." Mr. Weasley elaborates. "You see, Fudge thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister of Magic."

"But Dumbledore doesn't want–"

"Oh heavens no." Urahara says, waving his fan. "Who would want a whole government on their shoulders when they can just merrily head a school where people don't lie through their teeth to take all you've got? But it doesn't matter what Dumbledore-san wants. If this Fudge fellow has decided to be paranoid over him, there's very little you can do. It probably doesn't help that Dumbledore-san is an influential individual, giving a good reason behind _why_ an uprising by him could do damage. So because Fudge-san loves his power and knows that leaders in the transition from peace-time to war-time rarely do well, he has taken the easiest road to retain that power by denying the possibility of War rearing its ugly head. And furthermore, in an attempt to check the possibility of a coup, Fudge-san is using his sources to discredit Dumbledore-san as much as possible."

"And they're doing a fairly decent job of it." Lupin adds. "Didn't you see the _Daily Prophet_ last week? They reported that Dumbledore has been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards because he's getting old and losing his grip, but it's not true, he was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made a speech announcing Voldemort's return. They've demoted him from Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot –that's the Wizard High Court –and they're talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class, too."

"But Dumbledore doesn't car as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog cards." Bill says with a grin, getting a small chuckle out of Shinji and causing Uryu to roll his eyes.

"It's no laughing matter." Mr. Weasley says in a serious voice. "If he carries on defying the Ministry like this, he could end up in Azkaban and the last thing we want is Dumbledore locked up. While You-Know-Who knows Dumbledore's out there and wise to what he's up to, he's going to go cautiously for a while. If Dumbledore's out of the way… well, You-Know- Who will have a clear field."

"But if Voldemort's trying to recruit more Death Eaters, it's bound to get out that he's come back, isn't it?" Harry asks desperately.

"Not necessarily." Uryu responds. "He'll get people from the shadows. Ones that won't be missed then he'll carefully worm his way in with others by whatever tactics are necessary while remaining out of the spotlight."

Sirius nods. "He won't just march up and bang on people's doors, Harry. He tricks, jinxes, and blackmails them. He's well-practiced at operating in secrecy. In any case, gathering followers is only one thing he's interested in, he's got other plans too, plans he can put into operation very quietly indeed, and he's concentrating on them at the moment."

"What's he after apart from followers?" Harry swiftly pounces on the offered subject. This would finally be something relatively new. He thought he saw Lupin and Sirius exchange glance before his godfather answered the questions.

"Stuff he can only get by stealth." The answer only confused Harry. It was much too vague an answer. There were too many things one could get through stealth, like a nemesis's favorite quill as revenge for tripping you in the hallway. "Like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time." Sirius further explains upon seeing Harry's look of confusion.

"When he was powerful before?" Harry asks nervously.

"Yes."

"Like what kind of weapon?" Harry asks, a slight note of fear giving a minutely desperate tone to his voice. "Something worse than the _Avada_ _Kedavra_?"

"That's enough." Mrs. Weasley snaps from her position in the shadows by the door. Harry hadn't noticed her return from taking the others up stairs. Her motherly air had yet to return as she glared furiously at the gathering. "I want you in bed, now. All of you." She adds, looking to all of the teenagers.

"You can't boss us–" Fred begins.

"Watch me." Mrs. Weasley snarls, sounding absolutely dangerous. She turns her glare to Sirius. "You've given Harry plenty of information. Any more and you might as well just induct him into the Order straightaway."

"Why not?" Harry quickly says, feeling ready to do all he can to fight Voldemort. "I'll join, I want to fight–"

"No."

Harry was surprised that the one to turn him down wasn't the bristling Mrs. Weasley, but rather Lupin who had turned him down. "The Order is compromised only of overage wizards." He says, looking at Harry to make sure he gets the message. "Wizards who have left school." He adds on, noting the twins about to argue it out of the corner of his eye. "There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any of you… I think Molly's right, Sirius. We've said enough."

Sirius half-shrugged, acting as if he couldn't care less, and did not argue the decision. Mrs. Weasley beckoned for the children to leave the room. Uryu gets up first, departing calmly and not looking the least bit upset by the cut off of information. One by one, the others depart as well and, admitting defeat, Harry joins them.

After all the teens had been seen to their rooms, Ron and Harry started to quietly discuss what they had learned that night, with only a small interruption as Fred and George Apparated in to join the conversation. The only new bit of info was the weapon and they all truly wondered what it was. However they didn't get to discuss their ideas for very long as Mrs. Weasley came around, checking to make sure that they were all truly in bed and not up discussing things as she had forbidden them to do. Harry had thought that mulling over the information would keep him up all night, but in the end, he drifted off to sleep without even realizing it, dreaming strange dreams with many-legged, cannon-headed creatures in them.

Uryu returned to the room he was sharing with Ichigo, slightly glad to find it free of Orihime because that just would have been an awkward mess. Ichigo's deep breathes are the only sound in the room as Uryu switches into his Quincy patterned pajamas, pondering what he's learned. It's mostly a game of politics, trying to oust the enemy without getting in trouble yourself, and the Order's side isn't doing to terribly well. _But I suppose that's not our problem. We're just here to take care of the spirit group that would cause them lots of trouble otherwise_. And that was another problem in and of itself. They had too little information to go on. Sure it wasn't something that normally bothered Uryu, and he was certain it didn't bother Ichigo, _that idiot's favorite method is to just charge in and learn as he goes_, but with the mix of the all too unfamiliar magic, they could get into deep trouble before they even know what's hit them. _All the more reason to study and learn all I can from those textbooks_. He spends a little more time thinking things over, trying to decide what to tell Ichigo and Orihime and what can be left out. Finally satisfied with what he'll tell the others tomorrow, he finally allows himself to drift off to sleep.

* * *

I hope you guys don't think it's too weird that Urahara and the others had such good input, but I thought it was believable considering how smart they are. I haven't received any complaints about it, so I assume you guys don't mind my paraphrasing for when I don't want to write out conversations. Hmmm, I just can't think of much to say today.

**Please review/comment to tell me how I did.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note**

ahaha... Ahahaha... MWUAHAHAHAHA! I have gained over 100 followers, 100 minions, for this story!

But seriously, thanks a ton guys for taking the time to read and follow this thing. It makes me so happy. Now if only I could get more favorites *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*

Anywho, on with the story!

* * *

It wasn't until about an hour or so before lunch that Harry or any of the other teens saw the Japanese teens. Having holed away once more in the room Ichigo and Uryu were sharing, they had been studying in peace until Ichigo had decided, with a _little_ prodding from the hollow half of Zangetsu, that if he sat around just reading textbooks for much longer he was going to keel over from too much boring information. So with that decision made, Orihime and Uryu decided they may as well join him in the break from studying. The Quincy half of Zangetsu and all of Orihime's fairies, except Tsubaki, didn't mind continuing their reading, so when the teens left they made sure to shut the door behind them, a precaution against the spirits being accidentally spotted through the doorway. Not knowing what else to really do with the break, seeing as Ichigo's idea to train some was quickly shot down by Uryu when he pointed out that they had no place in which they could be anywhere near as destructive as training usually was, they ended up wandering into the drawing room and helping with the cleaning.

It wasn't too long after Ichigo, Uryu, and Orihime had started helping that they finished de-doxying the curtains, Mrs. Weasley announcing that cleaning the glass-fronted cabinets on the sides of the mantelpiece would be dealt with after lunch. After that declaration the clanging doorbell rang for the second time that morning, prompting Mrs. Weasley to instruct the teens to wait in the drawing room and that she'd bring them sandwiches, Mrs. Black's screeching once more rang through the house. The moment she was out of the room Harry and the others rushed to the window to see the doorstep, Orihime scampering over with the rest while Ichigo and Uryu followed at a more sedate pace as they weren't quite so interested in who was at the door.

"[How mad do you think they'd be if I stabbed that painting?]" Ichigo asks conversationally, glancing out the window and seeing the filthy little guy from last night with a precariously balanced stack of cauldrons.

"[I think Sirius-san would hug you.]" Uryu replies with a straight face as the others discuss Mundungus's appearance with the cauldrons. Ichigo hums in response to his answer and Uryu would not be surprised if come tomorrow morning the painting was split in two. Any further discussion upon the butchering of paintings is gone as Mrs. Weasley's shouting sounds clearly through the house as she chews out Mundungus, the twins taking enjoyment in her tongue lashing being directed elsewhere and lamenting the foolishness of those below letting her go at it as Mrs. Black's shrieks start anew.

"[Think they'd care if I blew it up?]"

"[Yes. But only because you'd blow up several walls in the process.]"

It was at this point that the two took notice of the small… creature that had just come wandering into the room. It was short and humanoid, its skin incredibly wrinkled, as if it were too big for the thing. It was bald with large, bat-like ears that had a large amount of white hair coming out of them. Its eyes were a bloodshot, watery gray and its nose was large and rather snout-like. They also noticed that the only thing the creature wore was a filthy rag about its waist like a loincloth. It paid no attention to the room's occupants, instead muttering to itself as it determinedly shuffled towards the far end of the room. "… smells like a drain and a criminal to boot, but she's no better, nasty old blood traitor with her brats messing up my Mistress's house, oh my poor Mistress, if she knew, if she knew the scum they've let in her house, what would she say to old Kreacher, oh the shame of it, Mudbloods and werewolves and traitors and thieves, poor old Kreacher, what can he do…" it croaked out.

"Hello, Kreacher." Fred says in a loud voice, closing the door with an audible snap. Kreacher stopped in his tracks, his muttering ceasing as well, as he gave a very pronounced, very fake start of surprise.

"Kreacher did not see Young Master." He says with a bow and, before coming up, adds on "Nasty little brat of a blood traitor it is." for all to hear.

"Sorry?" George says. "Didn't catch that last bit."

"Kreacher said nothing." He responds, now bowing to George, before once more adding on in a clear tone "and there's its twin, unnatural little beasts they are."

While Harry wondered whether he ought to laugh or not at the deranged house-elf's actions, Ichigo, Uryu, and Orihime were left to wonder what Kreacher was and whether or not he was alright or normal. It was obvious that he was some sort of servant and that he resented the current occupants of the house, but they couldn't really figure out why the little creature was still there or who his Mistress was when he made it obvious it wasn't Mrs. Weasley. Meanwhile, Kreacher continued to mutter as if none of them could hear him.

"… and there's the Mudblood, standing there bold as brass, oh if my Mistress knew, oh how she'd cry, and there's new ones, Kreacher doesn't know their names, what are they doing here, Kreacher doesn't know…"

"This is Harry, Kreacher." Hermione tentatively supplies. "Harry Potter." She figured it would be easiest to start with Harry since she suspected that even the house-elf had heard of him. There was also how she figured it would only be right to introduce the Japanese group together, so starting with the single Harry was easier.

Unfortunately, her reply only seemed to distress Kreacher, his eyes going wide and muttering picking up speed and ferocity. "The Mudblood is talking to Kreacher as though she is my friend, if Kreacher's Mistress saw him in such company, ohh what would she say–"

"Don't call her Mudblood!" Ron and Ginny angrily command. It's not the first time, they doubt it will be the last, but they are getting tired and rather angry from the house-elf's continued degrading of Hermione when she has done nothing to deserve it. She has always treated the house-elf well, tried to get the rest of them to do it too, but all she gets in return is insults.

"It doesn't matter," Hermione whispers, not wanting to raise the tensions further, "he's not in his right mind, he doesn't know what he's–"

"I highly doubt that, Hermione-san." Uryu says, having acquired a dislike for Kreacher the more he mutters. "I'd say he knows _exactly_ what he's saying and rather wants us to hear it."

Kreacher paid no mind to the conversation being had about him, instead focusing on Harry as his muttering continues. "Is it true? Is it Harry Potter? Kreacher can see the scar, it must be true, that's that boy who stopped the Dark Lord, Kreacher wonders how he did it–"

"Don't we all, Kreacher?" says Fred, eyeing the elf mistrustfully.

"And these three are Ichigo, Uryu, and Orihime." Ginny informs Kreacher, pointing to each in turn.

Kreacher looks at them all in turn before his attention returns to Ichigo. "What is it, Kreacher wonders, it looks human but doesn't feel right, nasty, unnatural thing–"

"What do you want anyway?" George cuts Kreacher off, tired of the insults the house-elf continually gives. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, being a good bit more curious in nature, file away Kreacher's mutterings about Ichigo for further investigation later. That he wasn't human, or at least not fully human, was a curious lead, though Hermione was fairly certain that werewolf could be crossed off the list of what he could potentially be as she was certain the house-elf would have said so if he was one.

"Kreacher is cleaning." the elf evasively replies as his eyes dart to George.

"A likely story." Sirius says from behind Harry, having finally come back. He glares at Kreacher from the doorway, not hiding his dislike for the elf. The noise from downstairs has abated. Mrs. Weasley has probably finished yelling at Mundungus, there's no doubt in the Weasley children's minds that he is still being chewed out for his irresponsibility, and moved the argument down into the kitchen. Kreacher bows low when he sees Sirius, nose flattened on the floor.

"Stand up straight." Sirius impatiently commands him. "Now, what are you up to?"

"Kreacher is cleaning." The elf stubbornly sticks to the lie. "Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black–"

"–and it's getting blacker every day, it's filthy." Sirius says, glaring a little harder at Kreacher.

"Master always liked his little joke," Kreacher says with a bow and continues in an undertone, "Master was a nasty ungrateful swine who broke his mother's heart–"

"My mother didn't have a heart, Kreacher." Sirius snaps, sick and tired of the house-elf's devotion to the dead hag. "She kept herself alive out of pure spite."

"Whatever Master says," Kreacher replies with a bow before once more muttering more furiously, "Master is not fit to wipe slime from his mother's boots, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw Kreacher serving him, how she hated him, what a disappointment he was–"

"I asked you what you were up to." Sirius says coldly, leaving it clear that he expects a different answer. "Every time you show up pretending to be cleaning, you sneak something off to your room so we can't throw it out."

"Kreacher would never move anything from its proper place in Master's house." He answers, then quickly mutters, "Mistress would never forgive Kreacher if the tapestry was thrown out, seven centuries it's been in the family, Kreacher must save it, Kreacher will not let Master and the blood traitors and the brats destroy it–"

"I thought it might be that." Sirius says, casting a disgusted and disdainful look at the far wall that is completely covered by the tapestry. "She'll have put another Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of it, I don't doubt, but if I can get rid of it I certainly will. Now go away Kreacher."

Kreacher, it seems, would not disobey a direct order, so with a hateful glare at Sirius he shuffled out of the room, muttering the whole way. "–comes back from Azkaban ordering Kreacher around, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw the house now, scum living in it, her treasures thrown out, she swore he was no son of hers and he's back, they say he's a murderer too–"

"Keep muttering and I will be a murderer!" Sirius irritably calls after him before slamming the door shut after the elf.

"Okay, I'm just gonna be straight forward and say it: what the _hell_ was that thing?" Ichigo asks.

"That, as I'm sure you figured out, was Kreacher. He's a house-elf." Sirius explains.

"Ano, what's a house-elf?" Orihime asks, tilting her head to the side. "And why do you have one when you don't like him and he doesn't like you?"

"House-elves are magical beings that are forced to live lives of servitude, usually to older pureblood wizard families." Hermione bitterly explains. "They're usually left to do house chores and such. They are magically compelled to obey their master's orders or they're compelled to hurt themselves for disobeying. It's really rather sad. They can only be set free when their master gives them proper clothing, so the poor things always end up running around in rags. He really should be set free–" Hermione says, giving Sirius a hopeful glance.

"We can't set him free, he knows too much about the Order." Sirius says curtly." And anyway, the shock would kill him. You suggest to him that he leaves this house, see how he takes it."

"Ah, one more question, if you don't mind." Uryu says. "What is meant by 'Mudblood'? I understand its derogatory nature, but fail to see why it's such a high level insult."

Sirius sighs. "It must be nice to live in a place where your bloodlines don't count."

Ichigo snorts. "Hardly, we just do a good job of ignoring people who feel entitled by their family lines. Kinda helps when personal power is usually more respected, but good bloodlines tend to lead to decent power in the first place, so…"

Sirius grins. "I see, but back to Uryu's question. Mudblood refers to wizards and witches born to parents without magical heritage. It only has so much meaning because the purebloods tend to use it to put those without magical heritage down. Purebloods consider them dirt, so they have dirty blood, Mudbloods. In fact most purebloods consider Mudbloods to be inferior, but it's not true at all. Just look at Hermione, she's the brightest witch her age."

"I see" Uryu says, pushing up his glasses.

"That's just stupid. Judging people based on what family they get born into." Ichigo grumbles, scowl deepening a bit.

Sirius shrugs. "It's just the way things are." Sirius then proceeded to walk over to the tapestry and point out his own missing name and tells them about how he left home. He also told them about his family's 'pure-blood mania' and his brother. Then Mrs. Weasley came in with lunch, luring away all of the teens except Harry.

Ichigo also stayed for a moment to make an offer. "If you really want that painting and tapestry gone, I think I could destroy them."

"Really?" Sirius asks, a note of hope in his voice.

"Only if you don't mind losing the wall they're on," Ichigo replies, "…possibly a couple more."

Sirius just lets out a bark of laughter. "I'll consider it. I'm guessing you don't really care for my mother's painting."

"Kami, that thing is awful." Ichigo groans. "If I get to destroy that thing, it'll be with a smile on my face."

Sirius chuckles. "I'd be smiling too. Like I said, I'll think about it." And he seriously would. What was a little remodeling, something that could be fixed with a little wand work, in comparison to the utter destruction of two of the things he hated most about the old house. But if it could destroy the enchanted painting, it did raise the question of whether or not there'd be any wall _left_ to fix. Yes, he'd really have to think carefully about the offer, possibly ask one of the older Japanese to do it instead, maybe save the walls with their higher level of control.

Offer made, Ichigo goes and joins the others in eating the sandwiches while Harry remains with Sirius as they continue to study the tapestry. Sirius tells Harry little tidbits about some of the names on the tapestry and how some have been struck off for being decent people. Harry's heart sunk when Sirius brought up the hearing, hoping that he could go with Harry, as a dog of course, to support him. Dreading the possibility that his wand would be snapped, Harry tried to convince Sirius to let him stay in Grimmauld place with his godfather if it happened, but any solid reply was stalled by Mrs. Weasley calling them over for eat before all the food was gone.

With lunch eaten, the afternoon was spent removing objects from the shelves of the glass cabinets, an easy thing to do in theory, but much harder in reality when the items were reluctant to leave their shelves and some of them had nasty surprises in store. Harry was rather grateful for the effort involved as it took his mind off of his upcoming hearing, everyone else, not so much.

There was a silver snuffbox that bit Sirius, causing the skin on his hand to develop a crusty covering like a brown glove. Luckily Sirius was able to cure his condition with a tap of his wand, commenting that the box must have contained Wartcap powder. Uryu and Harry saw George carefully cover his hand and slip the box away into his doxy filled pocket for later use, but told no one as they saw no point in it. If trouble came from it later, well, it'd be rather obvious if Sirius's hand was anything to go by. A small, silver instrument, looking rather similar to a pair of tweezers with many legs, scuttled up Harry's arm when he tried to pick it up and attempted to puncture his skin, but Ichigo was quick to snag it off his arm and throw it to the ground, crushing it under his heel. Harry wouldn't know it, but Ichigo had used a small application of Blut Vene to make sure that the small device wouldn't stand a chance of piercing his hand when he grabbed it, glad that the one Quincy technique he could use with any reliability was one that was particularly useful when he was confined to his human body. They also came across a musical box that gave off a sinister, tinkling tune when wound causing them all to become oddly weak and sleepy until Ginny sensibly tried to shut it, missed, but got her mission taken up by Orihime who succeeded.

Things were going fine until they found a heavy locket that none of them could open. The wizards found nothing wrong with it besides the fact that it wouldn't open, but when Ichigo picked it up to try after they had all tried, he froze momentarily. The wizards didn't notice as Ichigo hid it well, quickly continuing with the attempt to open it like the others. A small nudge from Uryu was all the prompting he needed to try his hand at Blut Arterie to force the locket open. It was something Uryu hated to admit, but when it came to Blut, Ichigo's was stronger than his, mostly because Ichigo had good bloodlines for it and could run his own reiatsu through his veins, giving him a massive reserve to draw upon and use to reinforce himself. However, even with his enhanced strength the locket still would not open. Worried, Ichigo began a quick, hissing whisper of a conversation with Uryu.

"[Ishida, it's–]"

"[I can feel it, Kurosaki, but it's not him–]" Ishida whispers out of the side of his mouth, doing his best to make it look like they're not having a private conversation.

"[Then who–?]"

"[I don't know, but we'll have to find out. He was bad enough. We don't need a second coming of him.]" Uryu says with finality. Ichigo backs off, letting Uryu take the lead in the matter since he understands soul splitting the best, having acquired all of Yhwach's memories and techniques when he became the emperor and fully succeeded Yhwach.

Sirius tossed the locket in a rubbish sack, but Uryu quietly and quickly nicked it out of the bag, pocketing it before any of the wizards could see what he'd done. Orihime gave him a questioning look, but he gave a slight shake of his head to let her know that now wasn't the time for explanations. Uryu was actually still trying to figure it out himself. Yhwach had never attached a soul fragment to an inanimate object, only other souls, so the technique used to attach the fragment had to be different. It was also impossible to sense Yhwach's soul fragments because they integrated themselves so well into the host's soul, but this one, while impossible to sense without direct contact, Uryu had felt it through Ichigo when he had subconsciously opened up and sent the data to Uryu, could be felt on its own. It also didn't feel natural. Yhwach's soul had split, but it wasn't… torn Uryu supposed was the best way to describe the feeling he got from the fragment, like the difference between cutting along a line on paper and trying to rip the paper along that line. Uryu continued to puzzle over the differences as he cleaned, checking the vast store of knowledge of the Quincy to try and find anything that could explain this odd soul fragment, but he didn't find anything.

During the afternoon cleaning, Kreacher came slinking into the room to try and smuggle things away under his loincloth, cursing them every time he was caught and forced to give up what he tried to save. When Kreacher burst into tears over being denied the chance to save a golden ring with the Black crest on it, both Hermione and Orihime begged and convinced Sirius that letting the elf keep the ring wouldn't cause any harm. Kreacher didn't seem to know if he should be happy or not seeing as he got to keep Mr. Black's ring, but with the help of a Mudblood and unnatural foreigner.

And so the cleaning continued, with Ichigo, Uryu and Orihime popping in and out of the cleaning process whenever one of them, usually Ichigo, could no longer take just sitting there and studying. The drawing room took three days to decontaminate until the only things that hadn't been dealt with were the rattling writing desk whose contents were still unknown and the Black family tree tapestry that had, as expected, resisted all attempts to remove it. Guests came in and out of the house all day, ringing the doorbell and setting off Mrs. Black. Most left as soon as their business was done, though some, like Tonks, stayed to help clean for a while.

On the day after the drawing room was declared clean, Urahara finally took Orihime out to purchase clothes and other things that had been left behind when she was brought to England so that she could stop having to borrow from Hermione, Ginny, and Ichigo (he provided all her shirts seeing as Hermione's and Ginny's shirts didn't accommodate her bust very well). Uryu tagged along as a fashion consultant and because Orihime was considering visiting a fabric store to buy materials for making clothes from scratch and she desired to have the Quincy's expertise in the fiber arts to help her pick. Shinji had left to spend the day in Seireitei so he could handle whatever stack of paperwork had arose in his absence, leaving Ichigo as the only foreigner in the house for the afternoon. It was also on this day that Harry, Ron, and Hermione found something rather… frightening.

The trio had been sent upstairs to fetch Ichigo because they needed an extra hand down in the dining room that was the day's cleaning target. The contents of the room were putting up a better fight than expected. Knowing that when the Japanese teens weren't present, they were holed away in Ichigo and Uryu's room, they didn't hesitate to walk into the room through the door that had been left ajar. What they found stopped them dead in their tracks. Perched on one of the beds was an almost completely white figure, reading _The_ _Monster Book of Monsters_, which was not so much as twitching in its white hands as the book often did while being read. When Ron's hand brushed Hermione as he came to a stop, she let out a small eep, immediately causing the figure's head to snap up in their direction, a wide, psychotic grin spreading across his face as his gold on black eyes landed on them. The figure looked identical to Ichigo except for its coloring. Everything about it was white. Hair, skin, clothes. It was all white, the only other color being some black lining on the sleeves and collar of its clothes, a black belt, black socks, and its unnatural eyes.

"Well, well. Looks like I got visitors." It said, grin still stretching its lips. The odd double tone of the creature, for there was _no_ _way_ it was human, sent chills down the trio's spines.

"Wha-wha… who–?" Ron stammers, pointing a finger at it. It raises an eyebrow, grin becoming less prominent.

"Ya know it's rude ta point, Freckle Face. Knock it off before I knock yer hand off." It says, grin widening back up as it finishes delivering the threat. Ron's hand immediately drops to his side as he pales, taking a half-step back, Harry and Hermione moving with him. They all feel like remaining in the presence of the thing before them will only result in pain and violence.

"Awww, yer all gonna run away before we even get intraduced?" it whines, tilting its head to the side in a way that would have looked innocent if it weren't for the crazed smile and deadly presence it possessed. It shuts the book with a snap, causing the trio to flinch, before setting it aside and smoothly getting off the bed and taking a few steps in their direction with a predatory grace that frays their nerves even further. "It ain't nice ta just walk away when you were the ones that came waltzin' in." it croons, a wild gleam in its predatory, golden eyes as it advances another step. Even with the open door behind them, the three feel trapped under its golden gaze. "I'll go first, I'm–"

"Zangetsu." A voice growls from behind the three. They turn their heads just enough to see out of the corner of their eyes, for they can't bring themselves to let Zangetsu out of their sight with his deadly aura, and see Ichigo standing behind them, a dark scowl on his face, directed at his white duplicate. "[What the hell do you think you're doing?]"

Zangetsu turned his attention to Ichigo and the trio let loose small sighs of relief. "That ain't nice, Aibou, leaving the brats out like that." He mockingly scolds, wagging a finger at Ichigo. " 'Sides, ya left the door open. What'd ya expect me ta do?" Zangetsu asks, raising a brow while his unrepentant grin hints at the fact that he knows the answer. Ichigo steps forward, scowl deepening, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione are quick to clear out from between the two.

"You know that you're supposed to stay _hidden_, so tell me what part of _this_ is staying hidden?" Ichigo growls as he gestures towards the trio, gaining an air nearly as deadly as his duplicate. Harry, Hermione, and Ron back further away from the pair, senses screaming at them to just leave the room and not turn back. However they stay, mostly because Ichigo is sort of in the way, but also because their curiosity has been roused. Was this what Kreacher had meant when he said Ichigo didn't feel human? Had the house-elf picked up on the doppelganger's presence? What _was_ the connection between Ichigo and Zangetsu? So they stayed silent on the sidelines, hoping that some answers would slip out before them, steeling their nerves to ask later if they didn't get enough answers.

Zangetsu chuckles, his laughter sending chills down their spines. " 'S only three of 'em. Ain't gonna be hard ta keep 'em quiet." Zangetsu says, turning to look at them, dark eyes drilling into theirs, promising trouble and pain if they reveal what they've seen. "Yer the one that let me out, Aibou. Can ya honestly say ya didn't expect trouble sooner or later?" His grin has a more smug and lazy air to it now, like the cat that caught the canary, except still sinister.

Ichigo growls in response. "I did, but I also expected you to at least _try_ to avoid trouble, you ass."

Zangetsu just laughs wildly in reply. "Ya need ta get more inventive with yer name callin', Aibou."

Ichigo's scowl deepens. "Get out of here." With those words, Zangetsu disappears in a swirl of red tinged black energy. Ichigo grumbles and curses, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione can't understand a word he says. "[Thanks for nothing, you stupid, useless zanpakuto.]" he murmurs, rubbing a hand down his face. Ichigo lets loose a huff of air, calming himself from the absolute mess Zangetsu has made, and turns to face down the trio. "Sorry about that. He's usually a little better behaved." Ichigo says, rubbing the back of his neck, looking a little shameful but more so apologetic. "Now what was it you guys wanted?" he asks, trying, even though he's pretty sure it's hopeless, to dodge any questions about Zangetsu.

They stare at him a moment, still trying to comprehend the sudden disappearance of Zangetsu, before his words sink in.

"Oh, mum wanted you to come help us with the dining room downstairs. Reckons we need another set of hands." Ron answers numbly, mind not really on what he's saying.

"Okay. Guess we better get going." Ichigo replies, taking a step towards the door. His movement breaks the spell of shock that had befallen Harry, Hermione, and Ron and they all move to block the doorway.

"You can't just walk away after something like that!" Harry yells, a determined glint in his eyes. There's no way he's not getting an explanation when he was fairly certain that, had Ichigo not shown up, they would all be seriously injured, if not dead, by Zangetsu's hand.

"Harry's right. You owe us an explanation!" Hermione adds.

"He threatened to knock my hand off!" Ron indignantly states.

Ichigo stares at Ron for a moment before bursting into laughter. The three just glare at him, not at all amused by a threat they were very sure would have been carried out. "Ah… ah… sorry, sorry." He says as he regains his breath, wiping a tear from his eye. "I'm not trying to say Zangetsu didn't mean it or deny the fact that it freaked you out. It's just… tame, I guess, for Zangetsu." They look at Ichigo like he's crazy. Ichigo raises a brow at them. "What? I'm not kidding. His favorite things are fighting, killing, and cutting things into pieces. Not necessarily in that order."

"How do you– Why would you keep– I mean–" Hermione is at a loss of what to say. Apparently Zangetsu is more violent than what he seemed to be and she can't figure it out. Just how close had they come to being killed?

"What _is _Zangetsu?" Harry asks. He figures it's a good place to start. If they know what he is, then they can try to find a defense against him.

Ichigo sighs. There won't be any getting out of explaining this, but he supposes he can give them satisfying half-truths and hopefully Urahara and Shinji won't give him hell for it. "Zangetsu is a zanpakuto spirit." _Well half of one_. He sees Hermione open her mouth to ask what a zanpakuto is and quickly continues, "Zanpakuto are special swords that can transform and stuff when their wielder gets accepted by the zanpakuto spirit. Zangetsu is my zanpakuto."

"But there's no sword in here." Ron states, looking around the room.

"Why would I leave my sword laying around where that house-elf or anyone else could take it?" Ichigo asks, causing Ron to turn red in embarrassment.

"He said you let him out. Where was he being held? They're not slaves are they?" Hermione asks, having thought back to the conversation they had witnessed.

"He was in his own world" _which is in my head_ "and since my bond with him is strong enough, I can materialize him here in our world. And they're hardly our slaves. Sometimes it feels like the other way around. If you want them to lend you their strength, you've got to meet their demands."

"What does 'aibou' mean?" Harry asks, trying to figure out if maybe 'Ichigo' was a fake name.

"Partner. I don't really know why he doesn't like to use my name that often."

"So you've just got this really violent bloke that powers a sword and you can summon whenever you want?" Ron asks.

"Yup."

"Wicked." Ron sports a grin now. "Think I could–"

"No." Ichigo cuts him off, a very serious expression on his face. He notices the trio about to protest and hurries to explain why. "None of you could use a zanpakuto because there's certain requirements that have to be met" _like being dead_ "and you guys don't meet them. And no, I won't tell you what they are. Zanpakuto are secret and the only reason I've explained _any_ of this to you guys is because you saw Zangetsu." Ichigo says with an air finality. "Now I'm going downstairs before Weasley-san sends someone else up here." Ichigo announces, easily brushing past them.

_'__Why the hell did you let them see you?'_ Ichigo demands internally of his blade.

_'__Tch. I ain't used to sittin' around doin' nothing all damn day, Aibou. Ya usually fight a couple o' hollows a day and now it's cold turkey. The hell did ya expect?' _Zangetsu replies in an exasperated tone.

_'__I've been sparring with you every night in there! Is it really too much to expect you to _not_ cause extra trouble for me _on purpose_. You could have ditched out the moment you knew they were there, possibly avoided the whole damn fiasco, but instead you decided to freak them the hell out!'_ Ichigo mentally shouts back.

_'__And it was damn amusing. Helluva lot better than readin' 'bout monsters we ain't gonna fight and that sorry shit they call fightin'._The hollow blade bitterly replies.

_'__Why the hell didn't you drag him in, Ossan?'_ Ichigo angrily asks the calmer spirit.

'I'm sorry, Ichigo. I wasn't aware of the trouble he was creating since you weren't aware. I cannot not keep track of him as well when we are in separate places like that. The other half of Zangetsu calmly replies, a slight note of reproach colors his tone.

_'Sorry, I shouldn't have blown up at you like that, Ossan. You offered to stay out with him even though you finished the books I asked you to read, it's my fault he was unsupervised.'_

_'OI! I ain't a brat that needs to be watched all damn day!'_

'It is fine, Ichigo. I will make sure that he does not consider doing so again.'

_'__Thanks, Zangetsu-ossan.'_

* * *

So I put a good bit of humor in here, at least I thought it was funny, so let me know if you agree or not. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to have Hollow Zangetsu cause some trouble. I'm fairly certain a blade like Zangetsu would go stir-crazy from the sudden decline in use and action, so he starts welcoming trouble. Besides, it was begging to happen.

As for horcruxes, well I didn't want an easy, anyone who senses reiatsu can find them like it's nothing card, so I incorporated a bit about how Yhwach splits his soul into this. In the manga when Yhwach's soul splitting was being explained, it seems that he tagged some shinigami, so just because you have a fragment doesn't make you a Quincy. So I figured the fragments can't be sensed by outside forces. I partially applied this to horcruxes in that they can't be sensed unless you're touching them because in book seven it was shown that prolonged contact with the horcrux allows for it to effect you, so it's only active when in contact with someone and has a very small effect radius. And yes, I know I split magic and spiritual powers apart, but I'm going with some magics draw out the caster's soul, thus horcruxes are still possible and all that jazz. I hope this makes sense to you guys because I did spend a while debating what to do about horcruxes.

Anywho, I think it'll only be two, maybe three, chapters until we're off to Hogwarts, so I challenge you, minions. I challenge you to give me one hundred favorites before we get to Hogwarts!

**Please comment/review to tell me how I did.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note**

Ok next chapter. I think this one turned out all right, though it's kinda filler-ish, maybe. I'm not really sure. So on with the chapter!

* * *

The remainder of the afternoon was spent cleaning the dining room, with Harry, Ron, and Hermione sneaking suspicious glares at Ichigo as he went around helping wherever Mrs. Weasley pointed him. They knew that Ichigo had given a rather vague and shoddy explanation on purpose, but where slightly nervous to try further inquiry and bring up his temper, or worse, he'd resummon Zangetsu. Meeting the blade spirit a second time was something they could do without. Hermione had already whispered plans to check the Hogwarts library for any references to zanpakuto or similar sword enchantments, causing Harry to turn slightly gloomy at the thought that he may not be able to help because he might get expelled at his upcoming hearing. Luckily the cleaning was hard work that required focus, so his hearing was soon pushed to the back of his mind.

Urahara, Orihime, and Uryu returned from their shopping trip about an hour before dinner, having also gotten trunks for their things since that was the standard for Hogwarts students. Shinji returned just before dinner, looking very much worn out and, for once, his grin was gone. He dumps a black cat in Urahara's lap as he passes by the shopkeeper.

"She's your problem now." He groused, being very much done in dealing with the feline. She had been bugging him almost all day to figure out where Urahara had gone with him and had brought someone who needed something from him to his office for every time he didn't tell her. That list was surprisingly long and he had given up after the tenth one. He had paperwork to do, dammit! Couldn't she wait to bother him until _after_ he did the dreaded work? Or better yet, couldn't she use her onmitsukido skills and just follow him back? Needless to say, she had made a simple trip very stressful and he would be happy to never see her in his office again.

"Yoruichi-san!" Urahara giddily cries, holding the cat up high in the air. "High~ High~" he sings, as he spins around with the cat as it purrs in pleasure. The wizards shrug it off, having learned in the past few days that Urahara is an odd man, from the way he dresses to the way he acts, and fathoming what goes on in his head is nigh impossible.

Oddly enough, Ichigo and Uryu were less than thrilled with the appearance of Urahara's cat, and when Ginny asked them why, having found Yoruichi to be plenty friendly, they seemed nervous to answer, no wizard noticing the glare that the cat was giving the two, daring them to talk badly about her.

Orihime seemed happy enough to see Yoruichi, however the sentiment didn't seem to be returned to the same degree as the cat had squirmed and struggled her way out of the tight embrace of Orihime as she was hugged to the girl's chest, leaving most of the male population present to witness it jealous.

It wasn't until after dinner that the trio got some time to themselves to properly discuss the day's terrifying discovery.

"I can't believe you'd ask for something like that." Hermione exasperatedly tells Ron. "He was so violent and–"

"And I bet they could take down Death Eaters and other dangerous things no problem, Hermione. I mean, why else keep something like _that_ around except if it's dead useful?" Ron argues back.

"He does have a point." Harry agrees, thinking about how something like that could probably scare even Voldemort. It certainly seemed like a good way to defend yourself without a wand, just summon something really dangerous and set it on your enemies.

"And the fact that he was antagonistic towards Ichigo when they're _partners_ doesn't seem at all dangerous to you two?" Hermione hisses back. The boys go over the interactions between the two and pale as they realize that Ichigo was indeed not exempt from Zangetsu's violent attitude, but rather that he simply didn't react to it with fear as they did. Seeing their expressions, Hermione takes on an air that says 'I told you so' and says, "See. What I don't understand is why Zangetsu was reading a book. He didn't really come across as the reading type."

"More like the beating type." Ron mutters.

"Dunno. Maybe he was bored or something." Harry responds.

"Maybe," Hermione says, a contemplative expression settling on her face. A frown starts to take hold and she starts, "Maybe if he had more freedoms–"

"Don't you try going all _spew_ with that thing!" Ron commands, fear lacing his tone. "Set that bloody thing free and it'd kill us in our sleep!"

"Well, what if he just needs more freedom to become nicer? Wouldn't you be upset if you couldn't do as you pleased?" Hermione pointedly asks, starting an argument between the two. Harry listens to them go back and forth a bit, hitting some of the topics they argue over when debating Hermione's work with S.P.E.W.

"Um, I think Ron's right about not letting Zangetsu roam free." Harry quietly states, getting their attention and a triumphant "Ha!" from Ron while Hermione gives him a death glare. "Look, hear me out, Hermione. Orihime was happy to help you help Kreacher, so don't you think she'd try to do something for Zangetsu too if it was a good idea?" Seeing Hermione's glare lessen, Harry continues, "She's super nice to everyone and I can't imagine that she doesn't know about him, so there's got to be a good reason she hasn't tried anything. It's part of their culture, so they know what's best, right? Besides, they're partners, so it's not like he's a slave or anything. Ichigo said that Zangetsu was going against what he told him to do, so I doubt he's really suffering." The last of the glare drains away and Harry feels relieved. He doesn't mind what Hermione's trying to do for house-elves with S.P.E.W., it's actually not a bad idea, but he seriously doubts doing the same for these 'zanpakuto spirits' is a good idea if the others are even remotely similar in temperament to Zangetsu.

"Oh, I just… I mean… _We_ look down on so many intelligent non-human beings that I guess I'm a bit skeptical about how other cultures are." Hermione apologetically says. "I suppose that'll be another thing to research or maybe ask them about. Hopefully the professors will actually answer questions like that. I've gotten nothing on what they'll be teaching." Hermione seems quite annoyed that they're not saying anything about what they'll teach.

Any further discussion that night is cut off by Mrs. Weasley coming around and declaring it bed time. Hermione returns to the room she's sharing with Ginny and Orihime and it's not long until everyone is asleep.

The following days are spent in much the same pattern as the previous days, Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys cleaning the rooms under Mrs. Weasley's guidance, trying to catch snatches of Order conversations any time someone comes to headquarters, while Orihime, Ichigo, and Uryu spend the majority of their time studying, leaving at least once a day to help clean. Urahara and Shinji aren't seen much, but they're supposedly doing Order business, preparing for their classes, and dealing with affairs from home.

Hermione had searched every book she could get her hands on for _anything_ that resembled a zanpakuto, or at least the basic description Ichigo had given them, but found nothing. She didn't have any better luck in finding anything on Japan's magical culture, though Orihime was quite happy to chat about its normal culture, which explained a lot about how the foreign group referred to each other and other people. When Hermione finally managed to corner Shinji, Urahara always managing to disappear whenever she went looking for him, she got an answer on how they treated intelligent non-human beings. He told her that as long as they're not actively trying to kill you without you doing something stupid first, they try to be tolerant, though some of the older folks have trouble with that policy since it's semi-new. That had led to questions on government, which he had answered with war changes things and they were under new management before slipping away. Hermione was, of course, less than satisfied with the answers that she got on government, but fairly pleased that at least some wizards were making the progress of acknowledging other beings as people.

It was two nights before Harry's hearing that Dumbledore visited Grimmauld Place to leave instructions for getting Harry to his hearing and, while he hated to do it, forbid Sirius from going with his godson. He really didn't like having to cage Sirius in the house that he detested, leaving him to feel broken and useless, but it was for the man's own safety, as well as Harry's.

Dumbledore was surprised when Shinji and Urahara came wandering down into the kitchen. Even more so when they said that they'd like to return to the school with him and discuss arrangements for their time at the school. Dumbledore could tell that there was more to it than that, but whatever it was was not something they wanted to discuss in front of the others, so he agreed to take them and help set up their classroom.

After Dumbledore concluded his business with the Order members, he took the two outside so that they could leave in private.

"I don't suppose either of you can Apparate?" he asks the two.

"If you're referring to the teleportation technique that the Weasley twins constantly use instead of walking to their destination, then no, we can't." Urahara says.

"I see. Well, then we'll go Side-Along Apparation. If you two would get a good grip on my arm," Dumbledore says, offering an arm to the two, which they step forward and grab, a gleam of interest lighting Urahara's eyes, " –yes, like that, we'll be off." And with that said, Dumbledore spins on his heel and the three vanish with a loud crack.

When Shinji and Urahara felt Dumbledore's arm start to twist out of their grip, they tightened their grip accordingly. What they hadn't expected was the feeling of being crushed from all directions, much like how it felt to be beside an unrestrained captain back when they had just graduated from the academy. They unconsciously tightened their grip even further in that brief moment before the pressure lets up and they found themselves stumbling weak-kneed away from Dumbledore.

"[Damn. I haven't felt anything like _that_ in over a hundred years.]" Shinji groans, stretching and rolling his shoulders.

Urahara hums in agreement. "[Takes me back to my academy days.]" He looks down at his hand and notices its slight spasming. "[Looks like I'll have to readjust our gigais after this.]"

"Are you all right?" Dumbledore asks, looking at them with an amused twinkle in his eye. "The sensation does take some getting used to."

"Woulda been nice ta have a _warnin'_ before we got crushed like that." Shinji grouses. "Where the hell are we, anyway? This looks more like a town than a school."

"Ah, yes. You see, we can't Apparate directly to Hogwarts as there are shields in place to prevent people from entering that way. Instead, I have brought us to Hogsmeade, which isn't too far a walk from the school. So if you're quite ready, we'll be off." Dumbledore cheerily says, turning to lead the way, Shinji and Urahara falling in step behind him.

After a nice tour of the castle, during which Shinji had to drag Urahara away from the many magical features that caught his interest, otherwise they'd spend _weeks_ on the tour alone, Dumbledore showed them several classrooms he thought could fit their needs. After inspecting the offered classrooms, they picked one on the seventh floor. As they arranged the desks and poked around the room some more, Dumbledore finally felt the time was right to speak up and try to find out what else it was that they wanted.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have the feeling that picking a classroom was not the only reason you two wanted this visit." Dumbledore calmly says.

"Ha! Told ya he'd ask." Shinji smugly says. "You owe me 20 kan!"

Dumbledore just blinks at them. They _bet_ on whether or not he'd ask about their reasons for coming to Hogwarts. It was at this point that he began to question how wise it was to let them near easily influenced children.

"Hai, hai. You'll get your money later." Urahara responds, waving a dismissive hand at Shinji. "As for our other reasons, Dumbledore-san, there are two. Three, I suppose, since we're giving you a chance to ask some of the questions I'm sure you've come up with in private." He says, looking to the aged headmaster as he taps his chin with his fan, produced out of nowhere as usual.

"I see. I thank you for the chance to fish for answers, but I suppose I should let you start." Dumbledore offers.

"We need a trainin' room." Shinji bluntly states.

"A training room?" Dumbledore asks, frowning in slight confusion. "I'm afraid I don't understand. What is wrong with a classroom? Or, I suppose, what is the difference between a training room and classroom?"

"In more solid terms, we require a spacious area for our own more personal use." Urahara replies. "Preferably somewhere other students won't poke their noses in and sturdy enough to handle some higher levels of force. I suppose if such a room is unavailable, we could find a nice clearing or something in the forest." Urahara mumbles the last part.

Concerned for the forest inhabitants, Dumbledore asks, "And what exactly do you intend to _do_ in said room?"

"Train, duh." Shinji replies, getting an unamused glare from the headmaster. Shinji sighs. "We can't go slackin' off on our own stuff just 'cause we're here for the year. Me 'n Kisuke figured we could take Ichigo, Uryu, and Orihime-chan for one of the elective class periods an' work on their skills, or at least keep 'em in shape, during the year. When ya consider that most of our skills are designed for destruction, well, ya can see why we'd want a different space, ne?"

Dumbledore nods, now understanding the request a little better. "Hmm, yes I suppose you would." He lapses into silence as he considers the rooms in the castle and what might work for them. Some of the dungeons are reinforced he thinks, but they wouldn't be good because if their destruction got out of hand the structural integrity of the school could be at risk. No, they were no good. Other classrooms weren't built to be especially sturdy and he didn't think it particularly wise to let them go wandering into the forest. He was starting to think he'd have to ask them to simply limit themselves when he remembered a room that just might fit their _requirements_. "I believe I know a spot. If you two would just follow me…" Dumbledore says, leaving the classroom.

Dumbledore leads them down the hallways until they came before a blank stretch of wall opposite of a tapestry in which tutu wearing trolls were beating a wizard. "Now all you must do is walk past this section of wall three times, concentrating hard on what you need, and the Room of Requirement will provide to your needs, if it appears." Dumbledore explains with a smile.

Shinji looks skeptical while Urahara's face lights up in excitement as both start pacing before the wall. They both pictured as clearly as they could the secret basement training grounds that Urahara likes to make, Urahara going over all the details he could remember about their construction. After the third pass, a door materialized in the wall and Urahara hurried forward to open it.

The three of them stepped through the door and Dumbledore had to struggle to keep his jaw from dropping. The room hardly looked like a room, instead it looked like a wasteland filled with large boulders and cliffs. His attention returned to the other two when he heard shuffling and he saw Urahara pull several different devices out of his robes and began to wave them around a bit. They beeped and a screen lit up with indecipherable characters that caused Urahara to smile.

"We'll have to pace it out to see how much space we have to work with, but it seems to be just what we needed." Urahara happily states. "You may ask your questions as we pace it." He says as he sets off to the left along the wall, Shinji following him. Ready for some answers, Dumbledore follows them.

"I don't suppose you'd tell me _what_ you two are, as I'm quite certain you and those children are not human." Dumbledore says, hoping to get something out of them.

Urahara fiddles a bit with one of his devices before he answers. "You are correct in that Hirako-san and myself don't particularly fit in the 'human' category, and Kurosaki-san is debatable, seeing as he's a hybrid, however Inoue-san and Ishida-san are both human." Dumbledore stares in surprise at Urahara's back. He could maybe concede Ichigo being a hybrid, but that doesn't explain the oddity of Uryu's mind that Snape reported. Urahara seems to sense his surprise, as he never turns around, and further expounds, "Although I suppose that they are human the same way you wizards are: human, and yet even more. They simply aren't… super-human like you wizards are."

"An' who said we didn' tell ya what we are?" Shinji asks him, a grin filled with mysteries on his face. "Ain't our fault ya can't figure it out."

"I see." Dumbledore replies, trying to remember all the different types of people and things he's heard them mention. "Might I ask the ages of your group? I find myself quite perplexed on the matter seeing as you two don't seem to have aged at all these past thirty-four years, leaving me to believe that your kind don't physically age like humans."

"Eh, we do and don't, kinda depends on the person." Shinji says with a shrug, thinking about how Gin went from kid to adult in about fifty years from what he's heard, but Hitsugaya's been looking like an eleven-year-old for nearly as long. "As for how old I am, well… hmmmm… That's a good question." Shinji says, bringing a hand up to his chin. "I think I'm… around three hundred sixty…seventy. Somewhere around there. Ya kinda quit keepin' track of the exact years after a while."

Dumbledore stares at him in disbelief. He never would have guessed that Shinji was that old. He was over three times Dumbledore's own age and he didn't look like he could be much older than thirty. Shinji certainly didn't _act _like he'd lived for over three centuries most of the time.

Urahara chuckles. "You don't keep track of how old you are, Hirako-san?"

"Shut up! I could figure it out if I wanted, but I can't calculate that sort of stuff out fast like _you_ can." Shinji gripes.

Urahara just smiles smugly. "As for myself, I'm two hundred fifty-seven years old. Kurosaki-san is nineteen and Inoue-san and Ishida-san are currently eighteen, but will have turned nineteen by the end of the year."

Dumbledore is still rather surprised, based on appearance and the way he conducts himself, he had thought Urahara was the older of the two. Whatever they were were indeed a curious species if there was no way at all to accurately gauge their age. Or at least no way that could be readily observed.

"What's the lifespan of your kind, if you don't mind me asking?" Dumbledore asks, trying to get a more relative age for them. They made it obvious that they were long-lived, but now the question was how long?

"Not at all." Urahara says, waving it off. "Our life spans are, in a sense, endless, mostly because we only end up dying when something kills us. I think I've heard of a couple of us dying from old age, but I doubt those stories seeing as the oldest was alive for over two thousand years before he was killed two months ago. No, our lifespans are based on our power, I suppose. The more powerful we are, the tougher we get, the harder we become to kill. When one's powerful enough, it usually takes an instant kill to assure death, otherwise they can keep going as long as they've got power left."

Dumbledore can feel dread pooling in his gut. They sound like almost immortal beings. How can they be expected to fight against such things if Urahara and Shinji were to turn on them? To bring in their allies and attack? He supposed they could bind and seal such beings, but that was just sweeping the problem under the rug for another day. The fear was slowly tightening its grip on the old headmaster.

"Don't worry, Dumbledore." Shinji assures him, a gentle smile on his face. "The folks back home ain't interested in over here and most of us are only a little harder ta kill than a well- trained human when it comes ta death by injury. An' age don't necessarily mean power for us, just means ya know how to stay alive, whether that's sittin' back durin' serious fights or bein' real strong."

Dumbledore can feel himself calming down some. For all the information they withhold, the pair is, at the least, honest. He can see it reflected in their eyes. Still, the fear lingers. The 'what ifs' will likely haunt him for a long while, but there are many 'what ifs' that already haunt him when he looks to the past. And more than the fear, there is a steady hope that with their centuries of experience they can truly help him outmaneuver Tom Riddle.

"Any more questions, Dumbledore-san?" Urahara asks, turning to the head master.

"I– not at the moment, no. I think I'll take some time to think over what I've learned today and request that you allow me another session, maybe more." Dumbledore replies. There's too much information, too many questions, floating in his head right now. He needs time to sort his thoughts and figure out which questions are more pressing before he starts asking again.

"Of course. It's not a problem." Urahara says.

"Now for our last reason fer getting you in a private meeting." Shinji says, a serious expression on his face. "We'd like ya ta explain _this_." Shinji reaches into his pocket and pulls out a heavy, golden locket, letting it dangle from his fingers.

"I'm afraid I don't understand." Dumbledore says, carefully taking the locket into his hand and examining it. He takes a quick breath when he notices the crest of Slytherin on it. "Where did you find this?" he urgently asks. If this is what he thinks it is, he might have further proof for his theory.

"So ya know what it is, ne?" Urahara asks, a keen gleam in his eye.

"Yes and no. It is a locket that once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts, and, in more recent times, Merope Gaunt, Voldemort's mother, before she sold it. I have a theory on what purpose it may now serve, but no proof."

"An' what might this purpose _be_?" Shinji asks, tone laced with danger. He doesn't like a game of riddles when the last time they ran across soul fragments they lost a lot of people.

Dumbledore can feel the slight shiver run down his spine at Shinji's tone, remembering what Snape had warned him of and what he's just learned about how hard it could be to take him down. "I believe that Voldemort may have turned the locket into a Horcrux." Receiving rather blank stares for his answer, he asks, "I don't suppose you know what a Horcrux is? No? Then I guess I should explain. A Horcrux is a receptacle prepared with dark magic that a Dark Wizard hides a fragment of their soul in, thus trying to gain immortality. When the body of a person who has a Horcrux is destroyed, they will not truly die as the Horcrux acts as an anchor, keeping the soul tied to the earth." Dumbledore explains, surprised once more that night when Shinji and Urahara calm at his explanation. "I must say, I feel the need to ask why that seems to relieve you. So if you don't mind…?"

Shinji and Urahara share a look before Urahara answers. "The last time we dealt with soul fragments they were used to empower the person they came from. Kill someone in his army and he learns everything the deceased knew since he put a fragment in all his men. It made it _very_ hard to defeat and kill him once we got to that point. So considering that these Horcruxes are just a means to extend one's life, we find it much less concerning."

Dumbledore nods. That is certainly more concerning than someone who is simply trying to outlive their body. To face an enemy that learns all that you can do without ever seeing you, they must have been extremely brave, probably desperate, to fight, much less win, a battle like that.

He opens his mouth to ask more about this enemy when Shinji cuts him off. "Look, he was a unique bastard who is _very_ dead and we ain't gonna go into further detail than that."

Dumbledore almost questions them anyways, but one look in their eyes and he realizes that at the very least it's much too soon to try dredging up those memories without falling to the trauma that goes with them. He is not so heartless as to put them through that pain. Instead he goes back to his unanswered question. "You know, you never did tell me where you found this. And, if you don't mind, I'd like to know how you knew it contained a soul fragment."

"Actually, we didn't find it. The kids did when they were helping Weasley-san and the others clean out the drawing room at Grimmauld Place." Urahara says. "As for how we knew it contained a soul fragment… well, we can sense a person's soul, like a sixth sense, if you will. Although, that Horcrux is rather curious as we can only sense it when we come in direct contact with it."

"Sense a person's soul?" Dumbledore asks in disbelief. "What– How–?"

"As I said, it is an ability much like a sixth sense, operating along the same lines as sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. What we can learn from that sense is the approximate location of others, what they are, or at least are not, and any powerful emotions they're feeling. And much like scent for animals, we can use it to differentiate between individuals. However, it's not infallible, it's possible for a person to hide their presence from our senses. The protections on the headquarters are a good example of this, we couldn't sense the house's occupants until we were inside the barrier. So, in all honesty, it' not much more special than having enhanced senses." Urahara explains.

"I have the feeling you're downplaying that skill a good deal, Mr. Urahara." Dumbledore says, a small smile on his face. "I'm sure there are many who would pay to have such a skill. It certainly sounds quite useful to me."

"Mmm, it is." Shinji says. "Oh, look we're back at the door. Guess this place is smaller than the ones ya like ta build, Kisuke."

"Yes, but I think it's big enough." Urahara says, tucking his devices back into his unseen pockets. "Thank you for your help, Dumbledore-san." He says, giving a polite bow to the headmaster. "We'll let you keep the locket as you seem to know what to do with it. If we find others like it, we'll give those to you as well. Seeing as it is rather late, we can stay here at Hogwarts for the night and you can bring us back to Grimmauld Place in the morning."

"I appreciate the chance to get some sleep. It will probably be a late morning, but we old folk need our rest." Dumbledore says with a chuckle, Urahara and Shinji joining him.

* * *

Okay on ages, they're rough estimates. Shinji and Urahara aren't given ages in cannon(besides being over 110), so I'm using semi-dated things as a figuring method. Hitsugaya is a prodigy and the youngest captain. He is somewhere over fifty years old because he was alive when Momo, Renji, Rukia, and Izuru were in the academy. Within thirty years he graduated the academy, made third seat, and started bankai training. Within the last twenty years, he achieved bankai and became captain. 110 years ago, Gin was at third seat level, became a lieutenant in the next sixty years(by the time Renji & Co. were in academy), and captain in the next thirty years(Byakuya is the second youngest captain and was promoted shortly after Gin, so before Hitsugaya). Using these two prodigies that can be semi-tracked through the Bleach timeline, I figured somewhere around one hundred years was needed to get to captain levels, at least for the average person. Shinji was a captain for less than one hundred years before Urahara(only ones at Urahara's promotion with 100+ years captaincy were Unohana, Ukitake, Kyoraku, and Yamamoto) but still for quite a while as he comments on worry over the series of turnovers at the time, implying at least a decade or two as a captain, possibly more. So I picked ages above the two hundred mark with Shinji as the elder because he was a captain first. Please don't hate my age choices.

With the long explanation out of the way, I need a little help. I've been debating between two wand woods for Orihime and Ichigo and I'd like to hear your opinions on it. For Ichigo, I'm stuck between cedar, whose owners are fiercely loyal, don't want mess with their friends, and ebony, whose owners are determined and hard to sway from their chosen path. For Orihime, I'm stuck between willow, which has healing properties and owners ten to have unfounded insecurities, and hazel, whose owners deal with their own emotions(jealousy speech with Rangiku inspired, Riruka stuff too). You've got like two weeks to try and sway me since I'm gonna try and do a chapter for my other story and go to Salt Lake Comic Con! So excited for that. I'm gonna be a newest shikai(dual blades) Ichigo!

**Please comment/review to tell me how I did.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note**

Apologies for taking over a month to update! Sadly, this will likely become the norm because life has gotten busy because school, but I'll try to at least keep it below two months. For those of you wondering, Salt Lake ComicCon was Awesome! I got to meet JOHNNY YONG BOSCH! (For uneducated people, that's Ichigo's English voice actor) He said that he was also sad that the Bleach anime doesn't go to the Thousand-year Blood War. You might have seen me running around there in my dual blade shikai Ichigo cosplay. And YES! I got over one hundred loyal minions before Hogwarts, and almost two hundred minions total. Seriously, thanks for the support guys. Urm, and this chapter's a bit shorter than the rest, but I just wanted to get this out since it's been so long.

Anywho, enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Harry awoke abruptly on the morning of his hearing as if someone had dumped water over his head. After laying in his bed for a moment and slowly drowning in the despair of his imminent hearing, he sprung out of it, unable to take the thought of it laying down, and got dressed. He quietly slipped from the room he shared with Ron, leaving the other boy asleep, not wanting to think about how the next time they met they might no longer _both_ be students. Having successfully made it into the hallway, Harry quietly tread down it, slowly sinking into the thoughts of the day's fate once again.

His thoughts were broken when he heard several thumps come from behind the drawing room door. Curiosity aroused, and trying to put off thoughts of the hearing, he crept closer to the door, just in time to hear a muffled curse along with a particularly loud thump. Worried that someone might be hurt, he quickly opened the door, only to find the room rearranged, all the furniture in the room had been pushed to the walls. In the center of it all was Uryu and Ichigo, who was rolling off his back and onto his feet, swinging a leg out in an attempt to sweep Uryu's legs out from under him. Uryu quickly moved back, dodging the sweep, and brought his arms up to guard the punch Ichigo aimed for his sternum upon gaining his feet.

Harry stood frozen in the doorway, watching the two exchange blows. Watching the battle before him made Harry consider his definition of fighting. The only fighting without wands that Harry was familiar with was the beatings that Duddley would give him before Harry had a wand to scare him off with. They made Duddley seem clumsy in the extreme, with their smooth, sharp movements. It almost looked like a dance, one of a violent nature.

"Oh! Ohayou, Harry-kun!" Orihime chirps from a chair that had been moved to a spot on the wall by the door, startling him. "You're up early today." She flashes a bright smile at him. Harry notices Urahara's cat, Yoruichi is sitting on the arm of the girl's chair, tail flicking as she watches the fight.

"Er, yeah." Harry awkwardly replies, not really sure how to reply to that. "I jus–" His train of thought is cut off as another loud thump sounds. He turns to find that Uryu is now on the ground, carefully pinned by Ichigo, his fist just barely brushing Uryu's nose.

"Aaaaand match! Kurosaki-kun wins!" Orihime exclaims, hopping up from her seat. Ichigo pushes up from his crouched position over Uryu, smirking as he offers a hand to help the Quincy to his feet. Harry watches as Orihime dithers over the two and they assure her that they're fine, nothing more than some bruises from the match.

"Do you do this _every_ morning?" Harry asks as the three walk towards the door. Harry steps aside and follows them as they head downstairs.

"Most mornings." Ichigo replies, rolling his shoulders and stretching a bit. "It's good exercise and keeps us from getting complacent."

"Complacent?" Harry asks. He can't imagine much of anyone else being able to actually to fight at the same level as those two were. The fight looked like it belonged in some kung fu movie and Harry could honestly say that he hadn't believed that kind of fight could happen in real life.

"That's more of an issue for Kurosaki than Inoue-san or myself." Uryu says, pushing his glasses up. "He gets into lots of fights back home, so he feels the need to do this or he's afraid he'd get his ass kicked when we return home."

"Hey! No one said you had to with spar me. And I'm not afraid of getting beaten when we go back home!" Ichigo denies. "I just can't stand sitting around all the time." He mumbles.

Harry considers asking more questions, but they've reached the kitchen and his hearing resumes its menacing looming of doom over him. And so after nibbling on a piece of toast, he receives wishes of luck and leaves with Mr. Weasley to go to his hearing.

Harry's mood significantly improved after his hearing, seeing as he had been cleared of all charges, and he wasn't sure what was more amusing: watching Orihime try to get Ichigo and Uryu to join her in Ginny, Fred, and George's war chant of "_he got off_" or seeing Shinji join at Orihime's request only to get pummmeled by Ichigo as he tried to make a conga line with his hands on the girl's hips instead of the traditional position on a person's shoulders. Harry never noticed the strange looks he got from Urahara, Shinji, and Uryu when his scar burned for a moment.

* * *

It was a few days later that Ichigo, Uryu, and Orihime found themselves being taken to Diagon Alley by Lupin with Shinji tagging along as a chaperone of sorts, though he was mostly just people watching with an ever amused grin on his face. It didn't help his "mature adult" image that whenever they ran across any particularly plump witches or wizards he would flare his reiatsu a bit so that he could watch them scurry away on chubby legs as his grin widened. Lupin would always frown when he did as it always made him flinch a little, even when he could tell the feeling was coming.

The afternoon was spent getting the basics that the three would need for the coming school year. Robes, cauldrons, scales, telescopes, the works. Their supplies had kindly been paid for from the Hogwarts vault, though they didn't get to see the inside of Gringotts as Dumbledore thought it best to try and keep the Japanese group away from beings who were more… aware, so he had made the withdrawal ahead of time and simply given the money to Lupin.

The last stop they made before heading home was at Ollivanders wand shop. Lupin and Shinji decided to wait outside while the three got their wands. When Uryu asked Shinji why he wasn't getting a wand as well, he said that he didn't want or need one. Also, Dumbledore only gave them money for three wands, which Ichigo suspected was the real reason why, knowing Shinji wouldn't mind having a wand to play with. And so Uryu, Orihime, and Ichigo went into the shop on their own.

There was a tinkling of a bell somewhere in the shop as the three stepped in. their first impression of the shop was dusty and small. It was filled with thousands of small slim boxes on shelves that reached the ceiling and the silence over it all was heavy, daring anyone to break it. Though sensing magic wasn't something they could do, Orihime, Uryu, and Ichigo could tell that there was a certain air of power sleeping in the shop, waiting to be awakened.

"Good afternoon." a soft voice says. All three jump at the sound of the voice, Ichigo and Uryu placing themselves between Orihime and the voice, the blue light of reishi gathering at Uryu's wrist as Ichigo sinks into a fighting stance, Blut instinctively activating. "My, my. Quite a jumpy group, aren't you?" the man with the soft voice says, watching them with wide silvery eyes.

Orihime was the first to recover from the surprise of Mr. Ollivander's sudden appearance. "Konnichiwa!" she greets with a small bow as she steps out from behind the two cousins. "We're here to buy wands." she says with a bright smile.

"Yes, yes. Of course you are, my dear." Mr. Ollivander replies with a kind smile, charmed like so many others by the healer's kind smiles. "Dare I ask what happened to your previous wands?"

"We've never had wands before, jii-san." Ichigo replies.

"I see. Rather uncommon for wizards and witches of your age, but certainly not unheard of." Mr. Ollivander muses. "So which of you will be going first?"

"I will." Uryu announces, stepping forward.

Mr. Ollivander just nods his head, pulling a tape measure with silver marking from his pocket. "Now which is your wand arm, Mr. –?"

"Ishida, Uryu Ishida." Uryu calmly introduces himself. "And I'm right handed."

"Hold out your arm please, Mr. Ishida. That's it." the wand maker says as he begins to measure Uryu from shoulder to finger, wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, and more. As he measures, he says, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. Now a wand choses their wielder, so of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

It was at this point that the three realized that while Mr. Ollivander was flitting about the shelves taking down boxes, the tape measure was continuing its measurements of its own accord. Both Uryu and Orihime, being the seamstresses they were, thought how useful such a tape measure would be while Ichigo wondered what would happen if he tugged on it, the hollow half of Zangetsu encouraging him.

"That will do." Mr. Ollivander tells the tape measure and it falls to the floor in a small pile. "Alright, Mr. Ishida. Try this one, Blackthorn wood and dragon heartstring. Ten inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."

Uryu takes the wand, stares at it a bit, looks to Mr. Ollivander, and receiving a nod, gives it a little flick like he's seen Mrs. Weasley do during their stay at Grimmauld Place. Mr. Ollivander snatches it out of his hand almost at once. "Wha–?"

"Cherry wood and unicorn hair. Eight and a half inches. Swishy. Try –" and Uryu did, only for it to be snatched away once more. He frowned a bit at this, seeing as it was the second time Mr. Ollivander had done it, but figured it must be a part of the process.

"No, no. Here, beech wood and phoenix feather. Ten inches, springy."

Uryu gripped the wand and something about it felt _right_. He gave it a small twirl and light blue sparks fizzed from the tip. Orihime happily clapped for him while Ichigo had a light grin for him.

"Very good! Very good indeed. I don't often find the right wand for someone so quickly. So who's next?"

"Ooh! Me next! Me next!" Orihime squeals, bouncing up and down with a hand raised in the air.

"Of course, my dear. Your wand arm please, Ms. –?" Mr. Ollivander trails off as he stoops down to pick up his tape measure once more.

"Inoue. Orihime Inoue." She cheerily replies, holding out her right arm as Uryu did before. Mr. Ollivander nods as he begins the same measuring process before moving out among the boxes again.

"Here you are, Ms. Inoue. Try this, mahogany and unicorn hair. Eight inches, whippy. Give it a wave."

And so Orihime's own wand trials began. After about a dozen or so wands, Mr. Ollivander found her match: willow and unicorn hair, nine inches, nice and flexible. When she gave the wand a wave, golden sparks came out its tip, causing her to giggle in delight. Ichigo and Uryu give her small grins.

"And that leaves you, Mr. –?" Mr. Ollivander says, turning to Ichigo.

"Kurosaki. Ichigo Kurosaki." He replies and like Uryu and Orihime, holds out his right arm. Mr. Ollivander gets to work measuring before once more roaming the shelves, plucking several boxes from the shelves before coming back to start the trials one last time.

The stack of boxes continually grows on the spindly chair in the corner. Much to the three's disbelief, Mr. Ollivander seems to get happier the higher the stack grows, unlike Ichigo who is getting annoyed with the continuing process of picking up a stick only to have it ripped from his hand.

"Tricky customer, tricky customer." He mumbles. "To fierce for unicorn hair, most definitely. Not at all compatible with phoenix feather. So certainly a dragon heartstring core, but what wood?" He goes through the shelves, tugging out a few boxes, only to shake his head and place them back on the shelves. After a while, he comes back with three boxes.

"We'll start with this one. Yew and dragon heartstring, eleven inches. A bit bendy. No." He snatches the wand back and opens the next box to reveal a dark black wand. Ichigo perks a bit at the sight of this one as it reminds him of Zangetsu's appearance. "Ebony and dragon heartstring, 10 and a half inches. Flexible. No, not that one."

Ichigo frowns as the black wand is snatched from his hand. He honestly thought it would be that one.

"Maybe, maybe this one. Cedar and dragon heartstring, 12 inches, firm." Mr. Ollivander says, holding out a wand of a deep reddish-brown color. Ichigo takes the wand and giving it a wave, produces black and red sparks with a blue one coming out every now and then. Mr. Ollivander smiles, quite pleased to have found a match. "And there you have it, Mr. Kurosaki. Now that will be twenty-one galleons for three wands." The three paid the man using the money Lupin had given them and Mr. Ollivander bowed them out, for once receiving bows in return.

Orihime was quick to show off her new wand to Shinji and Lupin while Ichigo and Uryu were more reserved. After checking that they had gotten everything they would likely need without having an actual school list to go off of, they headed back to Grimmauld Place.

* * *

So that's the chapter. I only got six votes on wands for Ichigo and Orihime with a 4:2 on the types offered. So Uryu's wand is beech, which is for people wise beyond their years. Ichigo's cedar, for the loyal who can become quite dangerous. And Orihime's willow, for healing and often unfounded insecurities. Ah, yeah. Not a whole lot happened in this chapter. Sorry, but next chapter we're going to Hogwarts!

**Please comment/review to tell me how I did.**


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